Miami NIKE factory store 5K: Recap

I do not know if I have mentioned it before but I really have a hate relationship with 5K's. The reason being that I am not fast. So they annoy me. One of the main reasons I took to distance running was that I figured out I am way better at maintaining pace over long distance versus all out sprints that are short races.

When my sister emailed me about the race though I figured why not. It would be a lot of fun. Dressing up again would be a good time and I would run a few miles that day anyway to shake out from the half so always more fun to do it in race form!

First of all another fantastic swag bag. Great shirt. Not tech but great nonetheless. Lots of goodies. Including a discount to the NIKE factory store which of course meant new gear. Oops.

Woke up on Sunday morning feeling pretty great. Not sore from the half or tired. Although I wasn't expecting to be since I ran it pretty easy.

We of course dressed up because it was a Halloween race. Only to arrive and pretty much no one is dressed up. Definitely felt a little bit awkward. Unitard and tutu? Straight awesome.

We had some time before the race and just milled around waiting for it to begin. No warming up or anything. Just kind of felt lazy and waited for the race to start. I had no plan going in to the race and was just going to run my heart out to whatever felt comfortable.

The race began and I wanted to get into a comfortably fast groove and waited until about a half mile in to check where I was at and when I did I was in the low 8's and decided to roll with it and just keep that up. I felt like I was pushing but not pushing too crazy and would be fine sustaining it.

I will note that this was run at Dolphin Mall so it was not being run for the scenery. It looped around the parking lot until the final portion perhaps just under a mile when you enter the mall and run inside. Where of course GPS doesn't work so had no idea what pace I was running. Or how close to the finish I was. My stomach started to feel funny at about 2 miles in so I had to back off just a bit. Overall though I thought I raced well. AND PR'd the day after a half marathon: 25:27 not too shabby. Although next 5K definitely going for sub 25. Think I could learn to like 5K's now that I am a little speedier.

Oh and finishers medal awesome and glow in the dark, FTW!!!

Enjoy our costumes!!! I will dress up for Halloween...if I am running!!!