Run or Dye 5K Recap

Before I start this post, I just wanted to wish everyone good luck who is running the Boston Marathon today.  Kick butt out there! 

Ok back to this post.

I bet when you came over to my blog today the last thing you thought you’d read was a race recap!  I know it’s been FOREVER since I ran an actual race, at lease one that I took somewhat seriously.  The last race I ran was the Drenched 5K in August, and even that race I barely ran. 

How did I randomly decide to run a race again?  Well, a few months ago, my sister-in-law mentioned that she and her husband were planning on running the Run or Dye 5K at Citizens Bank Park in Philly.  (If you’re not familiar, Citizens Bank Park is where the Philadelphia Phillies play.)  Bryan and I were definitely interested so we signed up as well.  Time seriously flew by, because before we knew it the day was finally here.  I thought I would train for this run, but I honestly ended up not running at all these past few months.  I just didn’t really want to run, because I’ve been doing more yoga and weight training these days.  However, I knew I wanted to do the 5K to possibly spark my interest in running again.

My alarm went off at 5:30AM on Saturday morning and since I wore the majority of my race clothes to bed, I was ready to go fairly quickly. We left the house around 6:15AM and drove over to Bryan’s sister’s house. We all got into Bryan’s car and soon enough we were off to the city. 

When we arrived, I was shocked to see the number of people at the race.  Since we didn’t pick up our registration packet on Friday, we had to wait in this long line.  Luckily, the weather was gorgeous and the line moved quickly.

Eventually, we made our way over to our wave.  It took us about 15 minutes or so for our wave to finally cross the starting line and get moving. 

At first, most of the people I saw were walking, as it happens in most “fun runs.”  We ran as a group for the first half mile, but then I knew I would be miserable unless I ran ahead.  Trust me, I am not fast by any means and I haven’t run a mile in months.  But I HATE running in a group.  I like walking whenever I want without feeling bad about slowing the group down.  So, I sprinted a bit and from there I was on my own. 

The first mile was the worst.  As with most races in Philly, the course is flat and I hate that.  I’m one of the few runners that actually enjoys hills.  I like working hard to get over a hill and then coasting on the way down.  When the course is flat, I get bored and everything seems monotonous.  However, by mile two I was in the groove of things a bit and occupied myself by watching the other runners.  There was this one little girl who ran with her brother and father.  She was hilarious.  She had so much energy that she not only ran the race, but she was jumping over the short orange safety cones too!

I didn’t run the entire time.  I ran, I sprinted, and I stopped to walk a few times.  But as I said in many posts before… it doesn’t matter how fast you run – you’re still a “runner.” 

I had no hopes in actually running this race for real, which is why I didn’t time myself.  However, looking back on it I kind of wish I had.  Bryan, his sister, and his brother-in-law finished in 36 minutes and I finished probably 4-5 minutes prior, so I’m assuming my time was somewhere around 31 minutes.

It definitely wasn’t my fasted nor the easiest 5K, but given that I haven’t done ANY miles in a very long time, I was proud of myself. 

TALK TO ME

• What’s the last race that you’ve run?
• How often do you race?
• Have you done the Run or Dye 5K?  Thoughts?