Race Review: Navy League 5k

I’m not a big fan of 5ks. Nothing against them, but if I’m getting my butt out of bed early to race, you better believe I want to run more than half an hour if I’m going to lose my beauty sleep. So, I’ve only done 2 others besides this one: one was my first race ever and the other was a holiday themed race through Sea World where I got to wear a Hello Kitty shirt and jingle bells. (Priorities, right?)

My work was one of the sponsors of this race. We manned the water station at mile 1.5 and even had our company listed on the back of the t-shirts, which I thought was super-nerdy-awesome-cool. All of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project and Lone Sailor Memorial Project of Central Florida, so when I was asked if I wanted to run, I thought it would be kinda cool. Plus, I got to race with some peeps from work.

Left to right: Carla (VP of the department I work in), me (total peon), Ray (CEO), and Ray’s wife.

The race took place at Lake Baldwin, which is about 15 minutes from my house.

This was the first race that I’ve been to where it seemed like the National Anthem actually meant something to the runners. Usually, people don’t pay attention and are talking through it, which I know I have been guilty of. So it was nice to see that it was heart-felt.

The DJ announced that we should make our way to the start line, so Carla and I just followed the crowd because we had no idea where the start was or what was going on.

After a 5 minute walk, we spotted it. So official. 😉

The race started with some type of gun shot that scared the crap out of me and we were off. I carried my camera during this race and it reminded me how much I hate carrying my camera when I’m running. I took one picture only of the girl that was in front of me for most of the race.

I was putting in a good amount of effort trying to keep up with her. She lapped me in the end. (TWSS) After the race, I saw her walking around with a baby, so the girl that just gave birth not only kicked my butt in the race, but now the only picture I took is evidence of that. Awesome.

The crowd was pretty fun near the finish line. I think I got about 5 high-fives from this crew.

In the end, my Garmin had 2.91 miles in 25:50 minutes. There was no actual race timing since this was a fun run for charity. If there had been (or it had actually been a 5k for that matter), I would have PRed by over a minute. Figures, right?

I hung out in the shade at the end, took a picture of myself while some woman laughed at me, and waited for Carla and Ray to finish.

This marks the first time I’ve ever waited for someone at the end of the race. It’s usually the other way around. Felt goooood. 🙂

Once everyone finished, we met up with another co-worker, Stephani, and her daughter (who helped run our water station) for one last sweaty picture.

The race was a lot of fun and I love that my work is a sponsor. Now if they could only pay me to do these, I’d be set.