Cornwall Classic 5K

The Cornwall Classic run was yesterday, a great fundraiser for KidSport PEI, giving participants the option of a 5 or 10K run. I chose the 5K. My goal was to simply finish without having to stop and walk, and I’m so pumped to say I did it!

Roughly one year ago, I ran my first ever 5K race…my first ever 5K run…and I ran outside for the very first time ever…all on the same day. That race I finished at pretty much 30 minutes even and I didn’t stop to walk either. I did, however, wear my knee brace, and the course itself was relatively flat.

Fast-forward one year. I ran sans knee brace and chose a race that pretty much consisted of hills and had the last 1K of the race totally uphill. I finished on-the-clock at 30:34, but I did stop to check on a friend’s daughter when she fell and I slowed down at the end to allow my 3-year-old to finish the race with me, so I’m guess-timating my finish time to be around 29 minutes. Whatever, the real time, I’m super duper proud to have finished.

The first 2.5K was pretty easy. I had my husband and a good friend running with me and we spent a good part of that time chatting and catching up. I got to see some of the newer homes being built that I’ve never seen before, and the buzz of the crowd was pretty awesome.

This is us starting off (I’m in the middle with a pink/purple sweater on):

At the half-way point, I threw off my sweater (oh I forgot to mention, it was bloody cold out to start!) and got down to business. This is the mark where I usually let myself walk for 2-3 minutes. Not this time. And it went pretty well, too, until that last 1-1.5K where the hills just started to get to me. I did slow down, but I didn’t walk, and my co-runners were pretty awesome to keep me motivated (thanks Allan and Julie!).

Of course, there’s nothing like that feeling when you round a corner and see the crowd cheering you on. Oh wait, yes, there is something that beats that: seeing a very excited 3-year-old wondering if she could finish the race with me. I had told Kait to watch out for me and if there weren’t a lot of people around, she could run toward me and we’d finish together. The look of her face when I slowed down and told her to come on was amazing.

This is really what it’s all about:

I’m already thinking I’ll do that exact same race I ran last year again, which is in 2 weeks. Oh, and since I get to buy myself a snazzy new running skirt b/c I met my goal yesterday, I’ll have to think of a new goal for the next race.

Photo Credit: j.norman-bain