Race for the Cure 2011

Clouds and showers didn't deter Brad and me this morning. We woke early, geared up and drove downtown for the Race for the Cure!
That was my 28th running race, my 10th race this year and my 6th Race for the Cure!!!

I think the weather did keep some people home because the HUGE crowd seemed a little less huge this year. Too bad because the rain actually held off the whole time for us.

We did the 8:10 a.m. co-ed untimed 5K.
As always, the sheer number of people made for a very slow start. Including a woman who decided about 20 feet into the race that she needed to tie her shoe... so she just stopped and bent down right in the middle of the street! Be aware of things around you, people... like the tens of thousands of other runners :)

But after a couple blocks, the road cleared a bit and we picked up speed.
I felt surprisingly great, even as I pushed my speed. I guess 3 miles is a lot easier than 13! Imagine that.

I finished in 28:19, a 9:35-minute mile. But that doesn't accurately reflect my speed, because we were doing near a 15-minute mile when we started. We dropped a huge amount of time. Toward the end, my average was sub-8s!
Now, we run this race because it's super fun and a wonderful fund-raiser and show of support for a very important cause. But to be honest, we also love the swag. I've never seen another race that has so much free stuff.

And we weren't even piggy about it. Vendors were telling us to take a box of pears... all the yogurt flavors, etc. We scored!
As soon as those pears ripen, I'm making a batch of pear butter! And Brad has bananas, yogurt and granola bars for lunch for a couple weeks :)

Our plan was to head home and then do another few miles. But we were already downtown and looking at the Eastside Esplanade. How about we drop our loot in the car and run a few more miles? Perfect plan.

We'd parked on the east side of the Hawthorne Bridge, so we unloaded our stuff and ran north to the Steel Bridge and back. I did 2.5 miles at a good 9:33 pace for a total of 5.45 miles for the day (the 5K course was a bit short).

I feel great about my run(s). I've had my share of crappy outings, so it was very refreshing to have one to feel good about!If you feel led, I'm still collecting donation for my Race for the Cure fund raising. Click HERE if you want to give. Any amount helps. And THANKS to those who already gave :)