therunnerwithin

Every November Downtown St. Pete hosts the Women’s Running Series a 5K and Half Marathon event benefiting the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation.

This race was an interesting one to run as my sister had not participated in this event before so I was not familiar with set up and course. Though I did have a great time and was just :30 shy of PRing (personal record.)

The registration process was smooth and the event coordinators kept me up to date with all emails regarding packet pickup, parking, etc.

The packet pick up and expo was held at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and was well organized except for the fact that you had to go from one area of the hotel to the other as the packet pick up and expo were housed in two separated locations. I must say I was disappointed with the expo as well as the swag bag. For me the expo was disappointing as it was rather small for a well known nation wide event.

The morning of the race I met up with Court and Devin to carpool. Devin works for the city and was able to get us parking right by the start/finish line.

One thing I noticed and liked about this race was upon registering you were asked what your anticipated finish time was. The reason for this is they line you up in a corral and release you in waves. I was placed in corral 1 which means I was at the beginning of the start line. I was very happy about this because with 5ks people tend to run, run/walk and sometimes just walk, depending on the race. I take my running very seriously especially when it comes to races as I want to do good on my timing.

As the start time neared, we were asked to line up. I take my last few minutes to stretch and get my music all set. Soon enough the horn sounds signaling the start of the race and I set off weaving through the crowd.  As we approached mile 1, the event coordinators had set up an electric board timer for those running the half marathon, the board showed a time of 10:10. Shocked by how fast I ran my first mile, the thought popped in my head that I just may PR on my best 5k. As I rounded the corner into mile 2  I noticed a group of people cheering us on. Two members of that group happen to be good friends of my sister and shouted encouraging messages to me, powering me through the last mile.

As I neared the finish line I set my eyes on specific people and used them as targets to pass and I crossed the finish line with a time of 34:23.

Kudos to my photographer, Court, for snapping this awesome action shot of me.