Run for the Zoo 5k

After confessing all of my race anxieties in Saturday’s post, I was ready for my 5k on Sunday!

I woke up at 6:45, made a piece of toast with peanut butter and banana slices, and got ready for the race.  Luckily that was a piece of cake since I planned ahead and had everything ready to go.

Since the race was at the Lincoln Park Zoo it was only about a 15 min bike ride from my house.  I hopped on my bike and arrived around 7:40.  The race started at 8 so I had plenty of time to use the bathroom, warm up, and stretch.

I made my way towards the middle/front.  There was over 2000 people doing the 5k so I didn’t want to get stuck at the back! The first two minutes of the race I was trying to decide “should I run fast now and see what happens”? “should I start slow then try and pick it up?” Well my legs decided for me as I ran the first mile in a 7:40.  I am in NO shape to be running 7:40 miles then continuing so the rest of the race was quite painful.  I think my 2nd mile was around a 8:38 and my fourth around 8:55.  I took 3 30s walking breaks after each mile marker because I was dying.

I was so happy to finish and ended up finishing at 26:21! Not my best time but for what kind of running shape I am NOT in I was very happy.  They gave out popsicles at the end which was amazing! It was also super cool to finish and then look up and see some lions just hanging out right across from you.

Overall I really enjoyed this race. It was a great course, really well organized, and they had a ton of free be hand outs at the end.  I will definitely run this race again next year.

I ended up getting 287 out of 2085 and 11th in my age group! I was really happy with those as I figured they would not be so high.

Day 3: 35 min bike ride

Day 4: 5K, 30 min bike

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