8:50?!?

My husband says I'm officially a runner now that I've completed my first race.

We both were up early to head to the race. Nothing like getting up before 7 on a Saturday. The UW Bothell 5k race was kind of strange—there are two points where you go down and back, so you're passing places you've already run; the start and first half of the race are on relatively narrow paths so there is jostling and bottlenecking; and the final half mile goes up this killer hill (and this is coming from someone who runs hills on every run due to where our house is located). BUT, it was pretty, the sun was shining, and we got a free (really really) purple T-shirt.

We ended up starting near the front of the pack, just because that was where we were waiting before the race started. Due to this, my first mile was finished in 8:50. I had to look at my watch about three times. I don't think I've ever run a mile that fast before. Of course, that pace didn't stay, but I ended up with a time of 31:57, an average pace of 10:18, 12 seconds faster than the 10:30 pace I had as my goal. My husband (I'll brag for him here) did it in 21 minutes. So proud!

My next 5k is going to be under 30 minutes.

Funny note about the T-shirt. They're UW Bothell shirts, of course, but the logo is a big, white W on a purple shirt that says Bothell under it. If I cross out the Bothell, its pretty much the same logo as my alma mater, Winona State. Heh. I need a purple sharpie ...