For Sunday’s recovery run, I ran in the Run Wild for Autism 5K race with my team, Running for Nicholas and Friends. Nicholas is my nephew who has Dup15q and presents on the Autism spectrum. Everyone on our team has been touched by someone who presents on the Autism spectrum in some way.

This day was FABULOUS on so many levels! The course took you through the Baltimore zoo and round Druid Hill Park. This was definitely a challenging 5K with a mountain of a hill around Mile 1 (I think) and a hill that took you to the finish line. There should be a law against running uphill to the finish line.

The weather started out a little chilly, but was perfect during the run. We did our stretches and Lisa and I jogged a warm up lap to make sure we were nice and loose. I really wanted to push this race to see if I would PR. I’ve been in slow motion for most of this training season and I needed to see what I could do. My friend Kurt was going to help pace me so he and I inched our way to the front of the pack.

When the horn went of, we took off! I looked at my Garmin and I saw that we were running at about 7:50 pace. Yep…needed to slow it down just a bit because that wasn’t going to get me to the finish line. Kurt did a great job of keeping me moving without allowing me to lose steam. We didn’t talk much, although he was trying to distract me because I face was in my stupid Garmin every three steps, but he checked up on me to make sure that I was okay. It’s not normal to run with me and not hear me chatter. It’s funny…do you ever have a runner run by you breathing extremely heavy and making gasping grunting noises and you think, geez, slow the hell down? Well, I was that runner…breathing hard and fighting for air. Kurt would have to remind me to slow my breathing down and relax.

Did I PR? Nope, and I’m fine with it. My 5K PR is 27:39 and I ran a 28:02 (9:03 avg pace) for this race. Considering the hills and the fact that I’m training a lot slower this year, I very proud of my performance. OH and I placed 2nd in my age group (first time placing EVER) and 16th female overall. Go me! Below is my unofficial time on my Garmin.

Was that it? NO WAY! If you recall, a while back I did a Runners Inspiring Runners piece on my friend Becky who just started running this year. Well, she placed 12th in her age group and her official time was 34.02 (10:59 avg pace). As I told her, I was a proud running mama when I saw it!

Is that it? NO WAY! My sister came out along with her husbands family. After her first race, she was suffering from knee issues so she had to take time off between the two races. She made an awesome come back and finished in 40:37 (13:06 avg pace)! This with no additional training, plus a walk up the mountain of a hill. She had a very strong finish. Proud sister here…again!

Ok, now is that it? HA! Are you kidding me? Heck no! The most fabulous part of the day was that my beautiful running sisters, my Six Pack, were together again running in a race for the first time in a very long time. Injuries and scheduling has made it difficult for all of us to run together at the same time, so this was a treat.

THIS was the most treasured part of my day.