After three sunny days in Seattle (I must’ve lucked out with the timing of my trip), I woke up Sunday morning to overcast skies and drizzle. The race wasn’t until 10am, so I took my time getting ready and (stupidly) ate a fiber bar for breakfast.

My bestie Sabrina drove us down to Fremont, and we parked and walked down to packet pick-up. They had a board set up with your name and bib number. Once you found your bib number, you got in the pick-up line to get your stuff: a neon green t-shirt, race bib, and shoe timing chip.

As I was putting on my bib and timing chip, I looked around at the other runners. Most of them were dressed much more warmly than me, with pull-overs and long sleeves dominating the crowd. I was wearing a skirt and a tank, of course. It was in the low 60s, so I had a hoodie on for warmth, but handed it over to Sabrina before the start, since it was not anything I wanted to run in.

Tired but ready to start!

As I was waiting at the start line, a man next to me asked if I had run this 5k before. I said that I hadn’t and was actually from Nashville. He looked surprised and then said, “I’m from Tennessee too!” Turns out, he was also running on vacation from Johnson City. Small world!

Soon we were off. It had warmed up considerably and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds. I kind of laughed at all the people who were regretting their long sleeves and stripping off their pull-overs while trying to run.

I ran along at a pretty steady pace of 10:30 min/mile for the first mile, but by that time I was really wanting some water. I had (stupidly) failed to drink any that morning beforehand, and since the day before had been spent at on a wine tour and at Oktoberfest, I was probably pretty dehydrated. I had started to get side stitches, which, for me, is usually a pretty good indicator that I’m in need of water. On top of that, I think the fiber bar was making my stomach ache a bit. Usually a 5k will have a water stop every mile or maybe just one at the halfway point. I passed the one mile point with no water stop. I kept going. Shortly before the halfway point, I paused to catch my breath and hopefully try to see if there was a water stop ahead. There wasn’t. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold my pace without any water, so I started doing run/walk intervals for the remainder. I knew it wasn’t going to be my fastest 5k, but I was a bit disappointed that it also wasn’t going to be my first 5k without walking.

I finished in a little over 35 minutes, which isn’t terrible. It was around what I was expecting to run, especially considering all the walking I’d been doing around Seattle and the imbibing from the day before.

My quarter mile splits:

Started too fast, eh?

They gave us a beer at the end, but I was way more interested in the water! So Sabrina downed half my beer and then we left to go check out the Fremont troll. 😀

Thrilled about beer, obviously.

Fremont troll!

Shoes: Skechers GoRun 2