Father's Day 5K Re-cap

When I joined No Boundaries back in February I had a goal of running 3.1 miles without stopping, at the Father's Day 5K on June 19th. After injuring my hip (IT band) before we even started, 8 weeks of physical therapy, snow in March, rain in April, 90 degree weather in May and everything in between for 12 weeks I wasn't sure it would happen. When I woke up this morning with a terrible stomach ache (greasy pizza is NOT a good way to carb load the night before a race, FYI) I was even more doubtful.

We had a beautiful day for running, my stomach cleared up and I actually felt good. My goal was to run at least the first mile, which I knew I could do based on past races. When I reached Mile 1 (in around 11:30 mins) I felt I could keep going so I decided to run for 15 minutes, then 20 minutes. At that point I knew I was close to Mile 2 and felt okay, so I kept going. After that I decided to keep going until I needed to stop. Around Mile 2.5 my mentor Elizabeth found me so there was no way I could stop. The last .6 miles actually went fast and before I knew it I had .2 miles to go, then .1 miles.

I RAN THE WHOLE THING! And my final time was 38:05 (by my watch), which meant that I kept a pretty steady 11:30-12:30 minute mile pace. In my memory, I can't remember running that far, ever. It's totally possible that I did while training for soccer or track in high school or maybe for rugby in college, but certainly in the last 5 or so years, I haven't run 3.1 miles without stopping!

I'm sort of in disbelief that I made a goal in February and reached it in June. I sort of suck at reaching goals but it feels pretty dang good!

Maybe my favorite race t-shirt. 

It was such a fun race because there were tons of No Boundaries mentors and participants running the race. Every few minutes I came across another runner or mentor who was there to cheer us on or run with us for a bit. Plus, every so often there were signs with Father's Day trivia questions and then a hundred yards or so later, another sign with the answer. Did you know...?

The person who is credited with inventing the concept of Father's day was Sonora Smart Dodd.
It's always celebrated on the third Sunday in June.
President Lyndon Johnson "proclaimed" Father's Day as an official holiday in 1966 and was signed into law by Presient Richard Nixon in 1972.
The most common Father's Day gift is a tie. (I don't think I've ever given my Dad one!)

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!