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Race for the Cure Memphis was on October 29th. This is my first 5K since the mess of the first one. It is the first one I have ran since I started taking running more seriously and trained.
My mom is a survivor of breast cancer. Every year, I walk the Fun Mile with her and my family. Sometimes by accident, we have walked the 5K.  This year I signed up for the run and signed up to be timed.
I arrived early because mom likes to go to the survivor tent. There was some miscommunication and we had some trouble finding her. We found her and walked around the expo. There wasn’t a lot to look at and the massive amount of people makes it very easy to lose people and get lost. Right before the start, I headed towards the starting line.
Since this was my first 5K, I tried to position myself behind the people who looked like they run all the time and in front of the strollers. With the massive amount of people, over 22,00 people and over 1000 being timed, it was a little hard to decide where to start.
Mile 1:
We are off. The first block is slow starting because there are so many people running. Also I did not line up in the right spot because I spent a lot of time trying to get around speed walkers, walkers, strollers, and people going slower than me. At one point, I was running down an embankment, around parked cars, and then back on the race route. Also because of this I spent a lot of energy and went way to fast. I ended up running an 8 minute mile, something I had never done. My normal average pace is 13 minutes.
Mile 2:
Since I spent a lot of energy getting around people and running way too fast, I pulled back a little. I walked some and generally took it easy. I enjoyed the scenery around me. People in the neighborhoods, we run through have lawn decorating competitions. It is fun to have so many people cheering you on.
There was one guy who ran up to every police officer and spectator and shook their hand and thanked them for cheering/guiding the race. It was endearing at first but after a mile of him running ahead, weaving in and out of the crowd, and nearly knocking me down; he had become annoying so I picked up the pace and ran ahead.
I wish I had a Garmin or a sports watch of some sort to tell me the spilts but that is a present for the future.
Mile 3:
I had to pee. There was a line for the only port-a-potty along the race route. I waited in line and wasted a little time using the port-a-potty.
Afterwards, I got moving. Somewhere along the way, this guy started using me as a pacer. I didn’t have a problem with it until he became a jerk about it. This guy was running in a brown mechanics uniform and kept either telling me to pick up the pace or telling me that there was no way a big guy like me was going to beat him. He would run ahead of me and then start walking. I kept a steady pace and ended up passing him. The final stretch of the race is a very large hill and I ended up leaving him behind as I ran up the hill towards the finish line.
Final results: 39:59 with an average pace of 12:54 and 46 of 53 in age group.
Overall, I was very happy with my performance because I wanted to finish in under 40 minutes which I beat it by 1 second. If I hadn’t stopped to pee, I would have really smoked it. I wanted to beat my average pace of 13 minutes and I did not. Most of all, I did not want to come in last place.
Next year, I will line up a little closer to the front. Also, I would like to find a small, durable camera that I can take pictures of for my race reports. Some of the decorated lawns would have been awesome to take photos of.
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