Paint the Streets 5K

My husband and I chat with another runner after the race

Picture by James Hurley

Rick and I ran the Paint the Streets 5K on Saturday--a good charity run and an inaugural event. We had family in town watching the children, so we were excited to both run the race, and I wanted to try another 5K to try to shave a bit of time off my last 5K (21:09). This is the way I get faster--by pushing myself to do a little bit better each time. Reaching the sub 7-minute mile pace for a 5K took me awhile to get back to, probably because I don't do speed work! Rick is training with a little more structure, and his times keep getting faster too.

The race was well organized and started at the SAIC building only a few miles from our house. We did a warm up together through the Research Park area, and ran along the pretty Adtran fountains. Before the race, I met up with Kathy, who had run 8 miles to get to the race and was going to run 8 miles back after it was over (and she beat me in the race too--she is incredible!).

My splits were more even this time--6:30, 6:40, 6:44, and I finished 2nd overall with a time of 20:37. I am nearing my PR within nearly 30 seconds now, but I can't imagine running 10 seconds faster per mile right now. But I am going to keep trying since I haven't been this close since the babies were born! Rick got a 19:31, about 15 seconds faster than his last race. We both got first in our age group, reminding me of our "old days" in the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups. We often each placed first in our respective groups, something I always thought was really cute. It also makes we thankful to be married to another runner--one who had encouraged me since before we were dating and always pushed me to do my best while running.