Red Dress 5k Run and Blogger MeetUp

Saturday was a FANTASTIC day!

I woke up bright and early (after having a night of excited insomnia- you know, where you can't sleep because you're so excited for the next day?) My mom and I both got ready (in our pink clothes, of course) and waited for my grandmother and aunt to join us. I had a whole posse going to the race with me haha. Love it!

We eventually got in the car and headed to Hartford for the big event. The directions to the parking area were rather lacking and there were virtually no signs to point the way, so we ended up having to do a few U-turns, but eventually found where we were supposed to be. At the same time that we were lost, Stephanie @ Running To Health was trying to find the parking area as well. We ended up parking at the same time and met in line for the shuttle to the race. Once we were in the park, we met Kristin @ Running to Somewhere at the registration tent and started chatting in nervous excitement. We only had a few moments before the race began so we headed to (some super nice) park bathrooms before getting our places in the starting line.

My mother got in line with the walkers 

 Lookit her, all raring to go!

Kristin and Stephanie started further up in the mass of runners and I stayed towards the back because I knew with the humidity and my low iron, I was going to be even slower than normal. I met some fun people, most especially a bunch of ladies wearing red tutus and waited patiently for the run to begin.

I want a red tutu now!

I have to say, the course was absolutely gorgeous! 

 The Rose Garden at Elizabeth Park

And, thankfully, most of it was downhill (the only kind of hill I like). I hit the first mile at 15:35, grabbed some water around 1.4 miles and trucked on to mile 2 by 30:10. Somewhere between miles 2 and 3, I looked down and saw a squashed turtle on the side of the road. YUCK! I literally jumped over it (before I ruined my pretty pink shoes) and continued on. I finally hit an uphill that took me back into the park, but the last 0.4 miles or so was allllllll down hill and in the shade. It was a beautiful thing! I had been playing tag with this older woman in a blue tank top the entire run, I would jog past her and then she would jog past me. Then, I would jog past her and so on and so forth. As we closed in on the end of the course, I let her pull ahead of me for a bit and then I sprinted past her to the finish line. HA! Take that! It might sound mean, but it made me feel good to know that I actually beat at least one person to the finish.

I thought I had crossed at 47:15, but according to the official results, my time was 46:27. That's a 14:57min pace. Not too bad considering the heat and my traitorous iron levels. I placed 810 out of 943 overall and 95 out of 123 in my age group. I think I'm getting a little bit better! Yay! Kristin and Stephanie finished way before me (28min and 30min respectively) but they cheered me on at the end (Stephanie even took a God-awful photo of me running down the finish haha. Seriously, read her blog and check it out). Afterward, I poured a bottle of water over my head to help me cool down, we took some super awesome blogger photos,

 Myself, Stephanie and Kristin

and then we hit the parfaits!!

 Stephanie is modelling the correct way to truly enjoy a post-run parfait.

(Though I still maintain that while a parfait is yummy, a margarita should be a mandatory give away at the end of all races.)After we finished eating, Kristin gave Stephanie and myself a ride back to the parking area and we parted ways- but not before promising to get together again for more fun runs!

I also have to add in here that my mother did a superb job on Saturday. She walked her butt off and got a finisher pin and everything. SO proud of her! I made her promise she would do another race with me again sometime. She agreed! (Honestly though, after having had 5 strokes in the past 9 years all of which left her with no feeling on her right side of her body, the fact that she even attempted to walk a 5k is beyond amazing.)

On another note- this is my 99th post, which means my next post is going to be a give away! Yay! Get excited! And while you are excited, enjoy some more photos from Saturday:

A good amount of people showed up to the event. 

If you look closely, this woman is yawning. I feel her pain.

 My mother's superior photography skills.

 I just crossed the finish line and I'm looking for a place to pass out.

My grandmother tried to take a photo of me running past her.

Now we know where my mother got her picture-taking skills from....