St. Jude Fairway 5K

This past weekend, I ran my first race since February. It was my goal with this pregnancy to keep running for as long as possible (given that my body cooperates and it is still ok by my doctor). Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of races in Memphis in February-March (and it has been unbearably cold), so I haven't been training as much as I'd hoped lately. So, going into Saturday's race, my expectations were pretty low, and I was just hoping to finish in under 33:00 (or about an 11:00 min/mile...versus my non-pregnant average 9:00/mile).

Saturday morning came, the weather was gorgeous and I felt good. I was excited and ready to go. Michael and Emmie came to cheer me on, which is always some good motivation!

I met up with some friends for a quick photo before the race started, and then we took off!

Yes, my shirt does say "running for two." That way it's clear that it is a baby bump and not a beer belly...ha!

Overall, the race was great. It started out a little crowded but it thinned out substantially after mile 1 (my slowest mile, due to fighting the crowds). Mile 2 flew by and before I knew it, we were making our way back to the golf course to finish on the fairway. There were a couple of tough hills at the very end, but somehow I was able to push through them and finish strong. I was watching my Garmin very closely from mile 2 on, since I realized a sub-30:00 5K was very possible and at mile 3.11, it flashed 29:17. Once I realized the course was a little long (3.18 according to the Garmin), I knew my time would be off, but I still finished in 30:02, or 12th out of 54th in my age group. I'm pretty proud of that for being 6 months pregnant this week! 

Needless to say, this race was some much needed motivation for me to keep training and keep racing. I said from the beginning that I would love to keep running into my 3rd trimester, so here's to hoping I get there! There's another 5K on the calendar for this weekend, so we'll see if it goes as well as this one did!