Vinings Downhill 5K recap + What's Happening!

I took a few days off from running due to my knee, and I made an appointment with my orthopedist for September 10th to get it checked out.  Hopefully it's nothing serious...I'm still going to run but just take it easy.

Saturday I had the Vinings Downhill 5K.  I was a little anxious about it because of the hills on the course, but since I'd been running more hills during my training, I felt better prepared than just running the flatness of the Greenway.  My dad and brother were troopers and got up at 5 a.m. and went to the race with me.  My parents were always supportive of my participation in sports growing up so it's cool that they're still into it (my mom had to work and wasn't able to come).

We parked and headed over to get my race number.  My dad taped my knee up with KT Tape (felt like my high school days when he would tape my ankle) and we hung around until the race started.  I attempted to participate in a "flash mob stretch" so that was funny.  Finally, it was time to line up and get ready to go.

I believe there were around 1700 people running/walking the race!  I started near the back since I know I'm not as fast as others and didn't feel like getting trampled.  :)  It took me about a minute to get to the start line.  I waved to my dad and brother and I was off!  There was a nice hill to run down at the beginning of the race but, we all know...when you run downhill, ya gotta run back up.  I was doing a decent job with my pace and my run/walk intervals.  With my knee, I walked a little more than I would have liked, but I don't want to risk injuring it further than it may already be.

I saw the finish line and sprinted as fast as I could.  My brother and dad were waiting for me, and I couldn't help but smile.  I met up with them, grabbed a water, and we decided to walk to the after race party, which was ALL uphill.  We got there and I grabbed a Gatorade and cookie and got in line to get my shirt.  Then we walked around for a few and headed home.

I was excited to get an email just after 10 a.m. telling me the race results were already posted!!  I checked it out, and my time was 35:56.  Knowing that I was running on a bum knee and up hills, I was pleased with my time...only 56 seconds off from my PR!

I spent the weekend at my parents house and really enjoyed spending time with them and my brother.  I was also able to visit with a friend back home.  Guinness will be staying with my parents until Labor Day weekend since we are going to Minnesota for a week.  It was hard to leave him as he is my child, but I know they'll take great care of him.

In other news, I was the lucky winner of Yo Momma's Runs Cheribundi giveaway!  I'm so excited about giving these babies a try post workout!  Look for a review soon!

Some of our plans for our Minnesota trip didn't work out, so I decided to search active.com and just see if there was a 5K close to my grandparents house for me to do....and I found one!  I'll be running the Women's Running Magazine 5K on Sunday morning!  I think it will be fun and my grandparents will get to see me start and finish a race :)  I would LOVE to PR since I came so close on Saturday, so fingers crossed!!

I'll try my best to do some blogging while we're out of town, but if not expect a few posts following my return.  Hope everyone has a great training week!

Until next time,

Jen

P.S...My brother is slacking on sending me the pictures he took at the race, so when he FINALLY does I'll add them to the post...I got tired of waiting on him and wanted to get it posted!