Race Recap

I am by no means a race expert, so I probably shouldn't be doing a race recap. However, since this was my first time doing The Pumpkin Pie 5 K I think that I can tell my perspective of the race. First off, wow! I didn't expect that many people. There were over 1000 people running or walking this race.  When you first got there to check in they had you go to one section to get your race bib and goodie bag. Then you had to go another section to get your timing chip and then you had to figure out how to attach the running chip to shoe which looked way more difficult then it turned out to be.
The race started promptly and went directly up a hill, but it started on a normally busy street where the residents who live there did not move their cars. So you have 1000+ people trying to run up a hill and you have to dodge parked cars.  They did have the walkers take a different path so that was nice, at least we didn't have to dodge walkers the entire run.  There were a lot of hills! I mean a lot. You can check for yourself here. Every time I thought we had reached the peak, it felt like there was another. I ran hills for as part of my training, so I knew that I could handle them.  But back to the race.  They did have someone at the first and second mile mark telling you your times, and I thought the second mile seemed to past much faster than the first. I guess that could be due to the fact that while I did not want to start off too fast, I think I did. After the 2nd mile marker, I just kept following the crowd through the neighborhoods.  Some where around mile 3, the walkers shoot back onto the same path as the runners and how the enter the race path, it felt like as a runner I had to dodge them. Oh wait, and more parked cars. At the final turn, there were lots of fans to get your blood pumping, and seeing them and my cheering section allowed me to turn up the heat. I did want to turn it up sooner, but as I previously said I had to dodge the walkers. Anyway, onto that final stretch with everyone cheering you on and seeing that finish line I just had to push harder! I sprinted and even heard a fellow runner (someone who finished way before me) cheer me on for turning on the heat at the end.
Overall it was a good race. I don't know if I would say it was a fun race, maybe if I had someone to run it with it would have been more fun, but it definitely was a race of the mind.It looked like they had a lot of refreshments at the end, but I didn't wait to check them out. Maybe next race I will make sure to see the vendor section! All in all I am glad that I did the race and I am looking forward to doing some more. I am proud of how far I came in 11 short weeks and look forward to whatever running adventures come by way.
I never thought I would like running, but today, I felt like a runner!