CASA 5K 2012

I headed back to this race with the tongue in cheek mind set of "defending my title", which was really just a joke because I know I have not done any type of speed work and as well, I assumed this race would have many more runners than it did last year.

Richard and I registered about the same time.  I am not sure who egged who on more.  But all in good fun, we registered and knew that above all else, this great local race is all about one thing...the kids.
A great organization and a great group of folks putting on a fun race, what's not to love!

Last year, I believe the attendance was low because there were two other local races of the same distance going on.  Also, this race is a trail race which does deter some folks from coming out. If they only knew what they were missing.

This year, the race was much larger.  About 300 for the 5K and 100 for the 1K.  Yours truly was picked by Gary Van Kuiken along with three others to help demonstrate the moves for the YMCA song.  Sorry world...someone had to do it.

The kids race was first and are they ever the cutest things!  I just love watching kids run!  It makes my heart happy!  They have no care as to time, pace, place, etc.  They just run for the pure joy of it.

The 5k was next up.  Richard and I had done a small warm up on the course prior to the race start and found a large puddle but nothing too risky.  Richard had a "plan" and I figured I would tag along for the ride for as long as I could.  I didn't expect I would stay with him too long as I really had not been feeling that great.

The race began and the first mile was done in 7:36.  A bit too fast for me.  I slowly let Richard creep ahead of me and by 1.5 miles, I was well behind him.  I tried to get my HR down as I really didn't feel very good.  I kept running, but at mile 2, I began to feel as though I was going to throw up.  Not from running, from sickness.

I actually took a short walk break to get my stomach to calm down.  I can't believe I had to walk in a 5k, but I did.   I came upon a young girl from our homeschooling group, Clare, and she was holding her own!  Great little runner and someone to keep your eyes on in the future.  She took first in her age group.

I picked the running back up and stuck to nose breathing the rest of the race.  I figured any chance of winning anything went down the tubes with the walk and that was ok by me.  There turned out to be several very slick muddy areas on the course and I was expecting to see a lot of falls from those who were not accustomed to trail running.  I didn't see anyone fall though, which is a good thing. 

After crossing the finish line and catching my breath, we checked our times and I was first in my age group again, with a time of 25:26.  8:10/mile.  Richard took first in his age group with a 23:06!  Nice and speedy!

We were enjoying visiting with friends and watching the different activities that the race had going on.  Richard went back to check results and found that I had been awarded the Female Masters Award.  I was not expecting this in the least!

We snapped some more pictures and received our awards.  I have a nice gift card to buy my next pair of Flows with!  That is how I came to buy my first pair of Pure Projects last year!

Thanks for a fun day, CASA!  What you do is amazing stuff!  Thank you for letting me a small part of it all!