I know Kirkland fairly well – my mom has lived there for the past 16 years – so I figured that I knew this route really well. I do, however, I underestimated how much of a gradual uphill that whole first mile is. Then from mile 1 to 2, it’s downhill, then the last mile is flat with a quick slight downhill sprint into the finish line.
This run definitely felt harder than my first one. I think possibly because yesterday I walked nearly 7 miles with my friend, and have been feeling a bit run down after all the worry and stress surrounding my mother’s surgery and aftercare. I made sure to get plenty of sleep last night so I’d be as rested as possible, hoping to improve my time from July, where I completed the 5k in 38 minutes.
I succeeded. My time for this event was 36 minutes, about an 11 minute mile pace. I started by taking off fairly hard, but it was uphill and only managed about the first 1/2 mile before I had to walk t0 catch my breath. But throughout the whole race, I only walked a few paces each time, and quickly picked back up running, and sprinting as hard as I could the last bit across the finish line.
I really wanted to do this one for a variety of reasons. First, it was in Kirkland. Back in May, I saw runners finishing a race there and finally understood what these things were all about. (Read my post about that here.) This race was my chance to experience this for myself.
Also, a friend of my daughter’s is expecting twins, plus we recently had some fetal testing done for my other daughter’s baby. I felt running in this race was my tribute to both of them. Incidentally, the doctor who performed the placenta tissue test on my daughter was there at the race as a featured speaker and also a runner.
Next year, I want my grandkids to join me and do the Kids Fun Run. It was so darling – they essentially just run around the block, but a cute guy about 6 or 7 won the fun run. I can just see my grandkids doing this. I got really choked up watching that.
Now,I’m looking for one to do in November. Funny, they had a brochure in the SWAG gifts bag. Guess I’ll check that one out next.
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