Instead of joining everyone in the fun Saturday for the Hermes 10 Miler, I gave my legs a rest after two weeks of major races and settled on a local 5k. This 5k actually meant a lot more to me than others. Love-A-Stray, the main sponsor of the race, is a local non-profit, volunteer run, no-kill pet shelter.  They have two divisions, one focused on dogs, and the other focused on cats. I used to volunteer at the cat location back in high school. This resulted in many years of kitten kisses and coming home with my first LAS buddy, Carter.

Once I moved out of my parent’s house and didn’t want to disrupt the old man (the cat, not my dad) I immediately went back to LAS and found my wild little monster, Ralphie.

If you’re looking for a furry friend, you can probably find one here 🙂

Now on to the race recap! I headed to The Landings in Avon Lake and picked up my packet. The first thing I noticed, there were a ton of dogs, pretty sure I was the only one without a dog. We lined up for the race and headed out of the parking lot and through the landings. Things were going fast and I quickly found my pace. We headed into Kopf Family Reservation, and I finally checked my watch. I was cruising at a sub 8:30 pace and feeling pretty good.

And then my pet peeve runner showed up. For the next half mile or so a fellow runner kept speeding up, passing me, and slowing way down right in front of me. I nearly tripped over him a few times. At this point we were at the half way point, and I knew I had to make my move or else this guy would ruin my entire race. He already dropped my pace to 9:20. I opened my stride and let my legs do the work. I instantly felt like I was dropping seconds from my pace, and at the 2 mile mark, I was down to an 8:30 pace. One mile to go and I just kept moving, I skipped the water stop and tried picking off runners one by one. About 600 meters to go, and I got the anxious, nervous, omgimgoingsofastimgoingtopukebutimsocloseihavetofinish feeling. I get this feeling at every race now, and I love it. I kicked it in for the last 100 feet, and saw 25 on the clock, crossing the line at what I thought was 25:57. Two seconds off PR.

But I wasn’t upset, I was content with my race, my legs felt great, and I wanted more. I felt like maybe I knew how to run 5k’s again. So to enjoy the great run, I scanned the vendors and found myself on Rescue Row, full of puppies for adoption! Nothing says a great race by trying to take a puppy home!

Overall it was a great race for a great cause. Race results were even better. I ended up getting third in my age group and received a $10 Active Runner gift card, awesome!

Official results:

Time-25:55 (PR Tie)

AG-3/11

Overall-66/250

After four weekends of races, I’m putting my legs on hold and just packing in the miles until Cleveland Half Marathon. My hope is to let my body fully recover and get ready for some major training plans coming up!