
about to cross the finish line!
I was holding off writing this post until finding out my official race time, but since apppppparently it’s a slow process, I’ll give you my estimate: 29:00. I tried to push myself at the end when I saw it was 28:50something, but I think it was too late to sneeeeeak in under 29.
Bottom line: YAY for the Rattlesnake Master 5K. Sarah, Katie, and I wore our t-shirts proudly and posed for quite a few photos. Ashley came bearing an awesome “Go Elena! You Rock!” sign (made my heart happy), and my mom served as photographer and cheerleader. Adam called right before the race, and Arwen also texted me a good luck high-five.
The weather was beautiful, the route incredibly scenic, and the trail-run portion at the end made me feel all badass (Inner monologue: Wow. This trail is like 2 feet—-TREE ROOT, JUMP!—-wide! Whoa slippery. Oh, mud. Creep along the edges—TREE ROOTS—try to keep running. THIS IS MAKING ME SLOW. EWW GOOEY. OOH…GRASS. GO FAST AGAIN, GO, GO!). I failed at setting up my

Katie, Sarah, Me, Ashley, Patty before the start
watch and my iPod correctly at the start, but I do know my second mile was done in 9:05, which I would guess was my fastest one. I definitely felt more tired during the last mile, but overall it just felt good. We all just ran at our own paces this time, but I used the sight of Patty and Katie in front of me to keep me going at what I hoped was a good pace. I was very happy to finish well below the 30-minute mark…1 minute 25 second improvement over last time!
My mom treated us all to brunch at Courier Cafe after we finished. It was obviously delicious (Hi, pumpkin pancakes. Hey there, hashbrowns. Ooh, cinnamon buttercream coffee).
Overall, a good weekend. Overindulgence + physical fitness make for a decent combination. Today I ran 2.3 miles (thanks, mapmyrun.com), stopped to do 2 lab hours, and sprinted the .5 miles home. Overall I think I’m going to start doing more incline-walking at the gym and not worry about distance/speed as much…until the next 5K pops up, of course!