Another 5k...

What's wrong with me? I keep swearing 5k's off, yet I just found myself agreeing to running another one. Somebody please knock some sense into me!

Apparently, I'll be running the "Run from the Sun" 5k, benefiting the Melanoma Research Foundation. The race is being put together Scarlet Lawrence Atkins Foundation. Scarlet lost her battle to Melanoma two years ago, a day before her 28th birthday and three months after giving birth to her daughter. Her mom came and spoke at the running program I currently am part of.

This morning, I was supposed to do a long run... on the treadmill. Sounds exciting, ugh? NOT! I wanted to see where I stood training wise and how fast I should/could run the 5k on Friday. I ran the 3+ miles at a 7:30 pace. It wasn't too bad but I fear that there is no way I can sustain the pace given that we've been under constant heat advisory for the last week or so, it's humid as heck, the race is at 7 p.m. and that there are a few hills on the course. I'll be running the exact same route as my first 5k, which was the Youth Villages 5k. Should be interesting!

Firecracker 5k

Another terrible 5k. Last night, Anthony, our friend Elizabeth and I ran the Firecracker 5k for St. Jude. I am just not cut for running 5k's. The first mile was OK, jumping over bodies, sticking my elbows out to make sure no one would trip me: it was crowded. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and I was around the 7 min/mile mark, even went sub-7 a couple of times. It all went downhill from there! I finished in 23:47, not stellar, 18 seconds slower than my last (and first ever!) 5k. I suppose that being two weeks back into training after a month off just didn't work in my favor! I ended up 12th in my age group out of 152, so that's not too bad.









Before and after the race pictures!

Team Thomas

... and I am also now a member of "Team Thomas". As you already know, I'll be running the St. Jude 1/2 marathon on December 6th. I also signed up to be a St. Jude Hero to hopefully raise lots of money for St. Jude! One of my neighbor and my friend Debbie, I've been running with, told me about Team Thomas. They raised over $24,000 for St. Jude last year. Since it seems such a great group, I had to join in the fun. I have all the info about the St. Jude Heroes and Thomas, of course, on my very own St. Jude page.

On other St. Jude news, Anthony and I are both registered to run the St. Jude Firecracker 5k on Thursday night, July 3rd. It's supposed to be a very fun race, very crowded, but fun! It will be Anthony's very first 5k and only my second! I'll probably take it much slower this time around...