elizabeth 8k!

saturday morning i ran my first timed race! warrior dash is too fun to count as an actual "race." so i skipped ever running a 5k race and went straight for the 8k. i even convinced derrick to run with me too.

saturday morning i woke up around 6am and had a cup of coffee and a banana. i picked derrick up around 7am and we headed over to elizabeth. after hanging out inside the rec center for awhile before the race (it was cold!) we headed outside to line up for the start. a little bit after 8am - we were off!

{before: we ended up on the observer's storify}

elizabeth is a neat historical neighborhood/area in charlotte and the race took us through the beautiful residential streets. around the .5 mile mark, i turned the corner to find my mom & step dad. my mom had a pom pom and was jumping up and down - amazing! they popped up again around mile 1.5 and i tried to snap a picture but they didn't turn out. we grabbed water at the 2 mile mark. somewhere around 3.5, there was a pretty steep/long hill that was tough. but other than that, it was a pretty flat course.

derrick & i ran together the first 4 miles, but he wanted to run faster the last mile. i was already running quite a bit faster than my normal pace, so i told him to go ahead. the last mile was easy & there were a lot of people cheering. the highlight of the race was a giant tailgate party going on in a front yard that we passed twice. there was like 30 people out there with kegs & megaphones cheering us on - it was great!

i finished the race with a chip time of 48:18! my goal was really just to finish it under 50 because i generally run a 10 minute mile, so i was really proud of my time. my mom and katie were waiting for me at the finish line and i was glad to see them. a few other friends ended up showing up a few minutes after we finished - what great pals we have!

{after}

{derrick & alex}

after some water & a banana, we all headed off to brunch at toast for some good post race brunch.

next up: ballantyne 10k on may 18th!