Close...but no cigar

Friday was a great day! I drove the 4 hours down to the beach to see my long lost husband (well only 4 weeks lost). We met for lunch at Which Wich, my first time eating there, and I really liked it. To bad there is only one location in the entire state of Mississippi. Then Chris headed back to work and I went to the Condo to discover this waiting for me:

Tigger mug full of holiday Clif bars!

My hubby is so awesome!

Chris had signed up for two 5ks on Saturday and I had the decision to run one, both, or neither of them, depending on how I felt. Despite the surprisingly cold and very windy weather predicted for Saturday, I went to bed on Friday knowing I wanted to run both races. 
We got up early Saturday morning, dressed as warm as possible, and drove the 30+ miles to the race location in Pascagoula, MS. The Ingalls 5k on the Causeway started on Singing River Island and ran out across this bridge (in 50 degree weather and 20mph+ winds).

Bridge over open water=very windy!

The race was benefiting the Special Olympics so I decided to brave it and support this wonderful cause. I am so glad I did, because I not only received this amazing finishers medal (each one individually painted and handed out by participants from the Special Olympics) but I also got the sweetest kiss on the cheek as I was given my medal. 

Front of medal

The back of Chris' and my medals, so cool!

I managed to finish the race in 26:14 despite fighting against the wind for more than half the race and I placed 3rd in my age group. There was also some wonderful pizza and cake for after the race and you bet I scarfed lots of that down.  

Then it was time to go searching for a last minute costume/something to keep us warm for our night 5k. I found a cute Supergirl shirt for cheap and got a thermal to wear under it. I also got a ear warmer headband because my ears were hurting really bad during the first run from all the cold and wind. It turned out to be colder weather than predicted so I'm glad I got this. Chris got a sock monkey hat to keep his ears warm/be his costume. 

I might have to wear this in all my races.

Once we got there and registered I spotted the trophies and knew I had to have one, they were so cool! The run finally started around 6:20 and it felt good to run and get the blood pumping. Despite the cold, I felt good and was running faster than I thought I would. I checked my Garmin way too many times because the course felt really long, but I was on pace to score my first 5k PR since April 2011 (25:29). I scored an amazing PR of 22:54, unfortunately the course was a bit short so that is not an actual 5k PR. My Garmin said 2.86, Chris' said 2.90 and another friend's said 2.98. The course wasn't well marked so I guess that might have had something to do with it. 

Witches for the women, pumpkins for the men.

So now to address the title of this blog. Both the 5ks I ran yesterday were flat, fast courses and I had a great shot at getting a PR out of both of them. The wind during the morning 5k took that shot out of the running but I am so proud of the time I did get considering the wind. I know if the course for the night 5k had been long enough I would have gotten a PR of around 24:40 since I was running an 8:01 pace, so that made me really frustrated. However, I did do well enough to take home one of those awesome trophies with 2nd place in my age group and Chris also got one with 2nd in his age group! 

I also scored an awesome t shirt, bag, pretzels, laffy taffy, and some yummy bananas (they begged us to take some home since they had so many left). All in all it was a great day and I am ready to get out there again and finally get that 5k PR I've been wanting for the last year and a half.