Navy 5 Miler: Accomplished!

<–celebrating finishing the Navy 5 Miler at The Silver Diner, the best brunch (or breakfast for dinner…) place in NoVa.

I finished with an average pace of 11:05. I only stopped 3 times for 30-60 seconds each–to chug my water and eat 1 goo (am far too uncoordinated to accomplish those tasks while running). That time was according to my Garmin anyway – I completely missed the actual time at the end because I was too psyched about making it up the final hill (and passing people on it–yay squats and yoga mind training! I never realized passing people on a hill could be thrilling!) and then sprinting to the finish (distance, hard; sprinting, love it!). That, and I was single-mindedly focused on finding where the bananas were stashed. DH always magically finds bananas after his Tough Mudders and Marathons, so I knew they had to be somewhere; I love bananas! Too bad they didn't have some delicious almond butter to put on top, but the banana was worth every step of those miles.

Anyway, this running business wasn't so bad. It was low-60s, I had gorgeous views of DC and Arlington to admire, and my wonderful DH by my side the entire time. He's very sweet to have run my slow pace to keep me company, though he did spend a good portion of his time trying to corral the 5 Miler peeps to the side to make way for the speed-monster 1/2 marathoners tearing up the left side of the road. Tip of the day for races: Don't wear headphones during a race. You look like a total D**$%# when you're bouncing around in your own little bubble while others are trying to pass you.

Oh, and mint chocolate goo–despite the disgusting name–is pretty amazing.

I think I may consider a 10k next.