New Year's Resolution 5k

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and are off and ‘running’ with their New Year resolutions! I started the new year exactly how I wanted too…. setting a new 5k PR! I ran the Santa Barbara New Year’s Resolution 5k bright and early on the 1^st. I ran this race two years ago, with Daddio and really loved it even though I had a rough run. This year went much better and did not disappoint!

I set out with the crowd at an intimidating pace (intimidating for me!). I held an 8:04 average pace for the first mile. It was hurting, but nothing like the Thanksgiving 4 Miler. I backed off around mile 2, only hitting an average pace of 8:15. At that point, I had half convinced myself that I was out there ‘just for fun’ and that any good pace would beat my previously held PR. The size of the crowd also had me convinced that I wouldn’t be able to place in my age group.

Can't beat Santa Barbara running!

During mile three, I saw my boyfriend who was all decked out in his biking gear and had his camera up and ready for some pictures of me. He followed me to the finish, stopping to take several pictures of me (I’m a spoiled girl). I picked up the pace and averaged 8:01 for the mile. With about a quarter of a mile to go, I saw one of my boyfriend’s running friends ahead of me, and I picked up speed. She was looking strong and the distance between us was daunting, but I knew she was close to my age and probably in my age group, so I grabbed on to the budding motivation.

I caught her right at the finishing stretch. I hesitated just a second, feeling a little guilty about blowing by her, but my competitive nature won out and I finished strong. I finished with the time of 25:02, beating my previous PR by 1 minute, 22 seconds and surprisingly placing 4th in my age group. And it’s a good thing I did push past! She ended up signing up for the 2014 Grand Prix season and she is in my age group for the season! Bring on the competition! It will be fun to run against someone I know this year.

I survived!

Daddio and I sharing some smiles after the race.