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| Team Chevy! I don’t have all the names. That’s me in the black shorts leaning on the car. |
It was so much fun to be part of “Team Chevy” (they profiled all the bloggers on that link) for the National Press Club 5k this weekend! Chevy sponsored the race and their outreach to bloggers was how I was able to meet Tony Horton last week and participate in the race Saturday. They also had the fun hashtag — #ReadySetSpark — for the race!
We could each bring a blog reader with us to the race on Saturday so Maggie was my guest — and she was also excited to meet Tony Horton — who ran the race with us as well!
When my alarm went off at 5:30am on Saturday, I was not feeling super pumped about it. Ha ha…I was thinking, is a 5k really worth getting up this early on a Saturday? Well, of course, any distance is worth it in the end so I pulled myself together and got excited!
We drove downtown and arrived around 6:30am for some pre-race gathering and excitement. I always love the buzz before a race, it’s intoxicating in it’s own way. Maggie and I made a short Instagram video on my Instagram channel while we waited!
I think a bug flew in my face at the beginning, ha ha. Anyway, finally, it was time to get started so Tony was up on stage for a little bit of warm up!
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| Maggie and I with Tony Horton pre-race |
After a quick warm-up, we were off. I don’t give 5ks too much thought since they are so short but always end up kicking into gear after mile 1. I’m anxious about shorter distances but had no plan whatsoever going into this.
Maggie bounded off in front of me (she’s just faster!) and I kept a steady pace. It was amazing weather as we ran down Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. Gorgeous!
At about halfway through, I felt pretty good and picked up the pace. I was trying to use my “pose running” techniques — and it helped. That can make it easier to go faster though it’s still hard on your breathing. I know there are some really good breathing techniques I should learn but haven’t had the discipline to do so yet.
I started passing people like crazy on the last mile, knowing there wasn’t far to go. The last bit is up a big hill and then just a small distance to the finish line. I ran up that hill hard and ran strong to the finish line. It felt good to get in a hard, short run — always forget how helpful those are for training.
I came in around 24:30 — though I don’t have the official time available yet.