Leesburg 5K

April 19, 2014. First race of the 2014 season. I feel good, look good (cut 15 pounds of excess weight), and I'm ready to set a PR. I would usually not register and participate for short distance races like these because I truly hate the speed aspect of races, I much prefer endurance. Anyways, I decided to shake the race cobwebs off and participate in a local run. At first, I thought this race would be a nice and easy road run...easy to set a PR, boy I was wrong. First of all the race was on an EXTREMELY muddy trail, and to top it off it was hilly!!! Check out these two pictures below...

You can barely see me or the mud, but the trail was in awful condition!!!

Check out that hill at around mile 1.2?

For some reason at the start of the race I was extremely nervous! Maybe it was just the fact that it was the first race of the season, but I still don't understand why since it is such a short distance...anyways, when the race started my eyes were set on a PR.

Start of the Race, really cut the fat down!

The start of the race took us around the park, I accidentally tried to go around a gate to find out that I had to turn around and go back, embarrassing! That dumb mistake took off about a minute off my time. After that episode, the course took us to an extremely muddy and steep hill that significantly slowed down my pace, but the worst was yet to come. As I tried to sip on my new Scott Jurek hydration belt bottle I didn't pay attention to where I was stepping and ended up rolling my ankle on a log, ouch. I refused to stop moving, my eyes wandered ahead and noticed I was still sitting at second place. I mustered my strength and paced at a 5:26/mi. until the end where I gunned the last .12 at 4:30/mi. I ended up finishing first! My first overall win! I was awarded an $100 gift certificate for the PR Running Store! Also, congrats to the girl I passed going up a hill, you were great competition.

Overall, not the best race I have participated in, but I ended turning a rolled ankle into a first overall win, check out my new Newton Distance S III 5lugs, ruined until I threw them into the washer on hand wash;)