4th of July and a 5K

I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July weekend (and week). Mine was full of housework, cookouts, swimming, boating, fireworks, and a little bit of running. It was actually quite exhausting and I'm ready to have the rest of this week to relax and have no plans at all.


On Tuesday I ran the annual 4th of July 5K race that is held in a neighboring town. I ran this race last year for the first time and although it was hot and miserable and had a killer hill, I felt so accomplished when I finished. That being said, I signed up again for this year.

My running buddy could not make the race this year so I carpooled with another friend from my neighborhood that was also running.  He also ran the race last year, and we both agreed that this was NOT a course to be raced!


Even though this is not a good course, this race always brings out a lot of runners and awesome crowd support.  Many people spectate from their lawns and hold out sprinklers and water hoses (which are much appreciated by the runners). 


For some reason my Garmin didn't start right away. I noticed this probably a half mile into the race. I had started it before the national anthem and then it went into battery saving mode. I think that when I clicked it again to start it, that click took it out of battery saving mode and didn't really "start" it like I thought it did. That's okay. I just decided to start it over again at mile one. I just made sure to pay attention to the clock at mile one.

When I finished the first mile, the clock read 9:03. Meh, not bad seeing as to how hot it was.  Since my chip time and gun time of the race were several seconds off, perhaps my first mile may have been even less.

After that first mile, it was time for that killer hill!  I thought maybe I would suck it up and run the entire hill, no matter how slow.  I felt really awesome running past all these other runners who were walking up the hill but then it happened.  I was almost to the top and then just felt the urge to walk. I had to walk till I reached the peak.  My friend said that by the time he reached the top of the hill, he saw some runners puking! Yea, it's that steep.  Remember that I said this race brings out huge crowds? Well, a lot of the people who live along the hill will bring their lawn chairs out in their yard and watch the race. I kid that they are probably all sitting there saying "look at these idiots running up this hill in this heat"

The uphill is very steep and that means so is the downhill. You would think that it would be easy running downhill but when it is that steep, it's not easy and you really have to have control. I almost felt like running in the yards beside me so in case I took a tumble I'd be safe!

Normally I can see the finish line clock as soon as I turn the corner to run towards the finish but this time I didn't want to see it because seeing it while I still have several yards to go makes me anxious. This time I just kept my head down while I ran the last several yards.

Turns out, I think I finished in exactly the same time I did last year. I wanted to confirm that so I tried to look up my official time from last year's race result page and guess what? My name isn't even listed as running last year. I KNOW that I saw it last year. For some reason  I see that the race results from 2016 have been updated on 1/24/2017. Perhaps my name was missed when they updated it.

We had some watermelon after the race and then headed out.


When we got home we hosted a 4th of July picnic (and pool party).


Of course no 4th of July is complete without ending the night with fireworks!


I hope you're having a great week!  Would you want to run this race next year? -M

14 comments:

  1. Congrats on a great run! That's crazy that you had the exact same time from last year. Tell me that you weren't wearing the Garmin I sent you--did it malfunction?

    Does Bailey have trouble with the fireworks?

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    1. It was totally my fault on the Garmin. I should have pressed it once to get it out of battery saving mode and then pressed it again to start it. I only pressed it once and thought it started. I didn't realize it till half mile in.

      Yes, Baylee has a hard time with fireworks. We can hear and see lots of them from our house. She shakes tremendously.

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  2. A race with crowd support is always the best. LOOK AT THOSE BABIES IN THE POOL. :)

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    1. It really does have the best crowd support of any local race I've done. Last year I remember asking if there was a parade because of all the people setting up lawn chairs to watch the runners!

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  3. I wish I could say my walk was a "power walk"!...haha

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  4. Look at you catching air running ;)
    Love your running skirt.
    & of course I love the fur babies cooling off in the pool. that's the life.
    Enjoy relaxing this week!!!

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  5. Thanks, I wore my red running skirt last year so figured i'd wear the blue one this year!
    I hope I can relax this week but I always find myself doing housework (like I am right now)!

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  6. Your race sounds a lot like mine! Although when I look at it in Garmin Connect, the elevation gain of the hills isn't that much. It sure FEELS like they're big hills! Weird.

    No fireworks for us. Don't like to leave the dogs alone with the noise (although really it doesn't seem to bother Lola much -- thunderstorms are a different story) & my husband doesn't like crowds.

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  7. Looks like the best kind of pool party :)

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  8. Great job on your race! Hills always hurt me on 5K races too! Hope you had a great 4th of July

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  9. Congrats on the race! It sounds like a tough one with the heat and that huge hill.

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  10. I do love to do the small holiday themed races they are lots of fun and get out people who might not normally run.

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  11. Awesome job on the race despite the crazy hill and downhill portions! I love that spectators are out there with water hoses and sprinklers! Congrats!!

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  12. This sounds like a tough race! I agree that the steep downhills can be hard. And I've had that happen with my Garmin before when I forget that taking it out of power save mode requires pressing the button twice.

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