Hearts on Fire 5k Race Report

 I woke up refreshed around 6:15 a.m, ate a cinnamon raisin english muffin with some peanut butter and honey, then kind of goofed off some. After getting dressed around 7:25 a.m I went for what was going to be a 2 mile warm up run but ended up being a 1.15 mile run because my garmin kept losing satellite reception and my legs were a bit tight, it was frustrating now knowing if I kept it slow enough.
 I headed to pick my sister up at 8 a.m and when we got there we both had to find a restroom so we ran to the first gym at the university, probably a quarter of a mile where I parked, then ran to the one next to it. Afterwards we stretched some, I felt ready and excited  for it to begin. The songs were getting us pumped, we were goofing off a lot, hearing the Macarina or however you spell it, then.... I can't remember the others. We started off with a good pace that I didn't expect, around 9:20 though my legs felt a little bit like jello. The first downhill was nice, first mile was a 9:22 and we picked up the pace a little but then came a long and big hill that slowed us back down to around 9:20 and then I do remember seeing us below 9 min/mile at one point. The 2nd mile was a 9:19 pace, and I was really feeling great though I could see Shauna was struggling a little, but right after the 2nd mile a large hill appeared out of nowhere (I swear!) and kicked Shauna's butt horribly, I tried to stay with her but I saw my pace reach 9:41 and I wanted to pick it back up, she told me to go on. The hill just about did me in too, but I kept pushing it and told myself I was almost finished and I was doing really well. Third mile was an 8:58 pace and then the measily .1 was a 7:29 and I was giving the sprint all I had. Over all I had aimed for a 28:59 and I finished with a time of 28:29, I was kind of hoping for around 26 minutes after Wednesday's run but I was not expecting those hills and an elevation gain of 181 ft, and some of the course had concrete as hard as sidewalks or harder, and I could just feel the awful pounding in my feet. No photos (yet), DH didn't go with us so there were no finishing photos though I am not sure I'd want to see them.
It was a great race, I am happy with the results and now along with Wednesday night I know what I am capable of, I feel I gave today's race everything I could have given. Last year I dropped out of it, it was the first race after like 2 months of no running, 15 lb weight gain and 15 degrees, I had completely underestimated the toll my body had taken with the pregnancy and have spent some time dwelling on my dropping out from it. Now I can proudly say I made up for it.

Hearts on Fire 5k
Goal time: 28:59
Finishing time: 28:29
Pace: 9:10 min/mile