I ran my seventh and final 5K of 2013 this morning and I set a new personal best!!!  I finished in 25 minutes, 13 seconds which is 3 seconds better than my previous best time from the Oy Vey 5K back in October, woohoo!  This course was hillier than Oy Vey (and at 29°F it was a little chillier out!!) so overall I am thrilled to end my year on this note.  Yippee!!!

A very happy post-race selfie in the car. Notice Bailey in the back?

Matt couldn’t make it to this race because he had to finish his year-end inventory count at the office.  (The realities of managing a manufacturing business!)  This means that this was my first solo race.  I wasn’t completely alone however because Bailey came along for the ride!  She loves the car and she waited patiently under a comforter on her big fleecy car bed while I ran.  What a good pup!

My four-legged 5K companion waiting patiently in the car.

Getting back to the race…  This was the 30th Annual New Year’s Eve 5K sponsored by the YMCA of the Upper Main Line in Berwyn, PA.  The course was a neighborhood out-and-back and I think it was the first race that I’ve run where the beginning half of the course has a lot of uphill climbs (which leaves more downhill for the second half!!).  I really liked that and as I was running the first part of the race I kept thinking about how I was going to take advantage of those downhills on my way back.

I pushed myself through the whole race and when I rounded the final turn and saw the clock at 24:51 I started sprinting (well, it was probably more of a powerful jog at that point but I felt like I was sprinting!) and I cruised across the finish with 3 seconds to spare.  I think I was 2nd in my age group, 5th female overall, and 30th runner overall in a field of around 100.  Cool!

My next race is the Athlete’s Closet January 5K this Saturday.  Rumor has it that Matt, Matt’s brother, AND my brother are all running in it too!  I think that will be fun to see familiar faces out on the course and I’m looking forward to it!  Happy New Year everyone!!!

Miles since last post:  95.2
Days since last post:  17
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.86
TOTAL MILES: 812.0

Related Posts:
•  Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
•  Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
•  Let’s Go Streaking! (11/21/13)
•  Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
•  Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
•  Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
•  Limping my Way to 400 Miles (10/3/13)
•  Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
•  The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)