The Tortoise Must DIE

I did my 5th 5k today.   My time wasn't great, but when I came home and was going through prior times, I realized that  it was actually 3 minutes off of my best time, since the Walk for Air was not a full 5k.

Here are the results of the last 5 races:

• November 13, 2010 (53:45.2, 17:20/m)
  
• October 2, 2010 (51:57) (Note -- this race doesn't count. After the race all participants received a message stating that the race organizers messed up the course and it in fact was not a full 5k, which explains the really good time.)
  
• September 12, 2010 (57:44)
• July 3, 2010 (56:25:35)
• June 5, 2010 (1:03:20)

I was, as usual grateful to have my cheerleader and photographer along. It especially meant a lot to me today since he had to work today and could have chose to sleep in instead of schlepping out of bed at 5:30 to cheer me on before going to work. Without further ado, I give you the pictures. You can click on them to make them bigger:

It was a beautiful sunrise.

This is the statue of the guy whose name I can't recall with his pet pelican in Riverside Park in Sebastian where we started.

This is me, being goofy at the start of the race. I jogged part way, but quickly came to the horrifying realization that I would be finishing the race with black eyes and bruised knees if I kept jogging instead of walking. It is seriously time for a new sports bra. I need to hit Junonia before the next race.

This is a bird that flew over while David waited patiently for me to return. I also saw a pretty big herd of Sandhill Cranes fly over the race. Not sure where they were going or coming from. Perhaps they were just pointing and laughing at me!

This is me, nearing the finish line.

Me, crossing the finish line.  I'm always so grumpy at this part of the race. The little boy from Runner's Depot who is always so nice to me in the store was at the finish line cheering, and for no discernible reason I just wanted to smack him one. I think maybe they should start passing out pastries instead of water at the finish line, I think I'd have a sweeter disposition.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with my time. About midway through the race I realized I wasn't going to break into the 40's and was cursing the stupid tortoise; slow and steady does not win the race, FAST and steady wins, the tortoise only won cause the hare was an idiot (sadly, this is really what I was thinking about during the second half of the race.)  But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the only thing that would have sucked more than having a bad finish time would have been to not have tried at all.