Surviving Saturday

We did it! Nic and I finished the 5K on Saturday. Thanks to general March craziness and travels over the past SEVERAL weeks, we definitely didn't train as we wanted to.  So, in the end, we decided to just have fun, enjoy the day, enjoy running/jogging/walking together, and finish whenever (as long as it wasn't last). So, with those expectations, we definitely survived. I learned several things along the way:

1. I'm far too competitive with myself. Seriously, I always want to do better. This can be a good thing in some instances, but many times I'm my own worst critic and far too hard on myself.
2. A running playlist can make or break my mental game. I always try to run with music and it definitely motivates me to keep going.
3. Having a running buddy is awesome. I loved running with Nic by my side. He could have easily gone ahead, but in sticking together we were able to encourage one another and keep each other going. It was much more fun this way!
4. I didn't realize how important our training was, until I hadn't trained. We literally had not run at all in 3 weeks... and we could certainly tell once we started the race. Next time I will FIND and MAKE a way to keep on training. I'm glad we set low expectations before we started!

If you're reading this, please pray for Emmett and Wendy... the reason behind the whole Team Emmett 5k. Read their blog to see how you can specifically pray for them.

For you runners out there, any advice for improving my pace? According to runkeeper I generally jog at about an 11-minute pace... I know, super slow! :)