Step Up for Stefanie 5K 2012

I mentioned yesterday that my grandma has not been well, which has meant, pretty much, round the clock attention from my mom and my aunt.  My mom and dad had signed up to do a fun run/walk on Sunday called the Step Up for Stefanie, which was a 5K run or 2 mile walk to benefit the Stefanie Spielman Fund for breast cancer research.  My dad texted me on Saturday night asking if I wanted to take my mom's place because she couldn't make it.  She was signed up for the 2 mile walk and because it was not a "race", she never got a number.  Hmmm....I didn't want to do the walk, but did want to do the 5K.  So I told my dad I was in but that I would bandit the 5K.  (Although, technically, the price of the 5K and 2 mile walk were the same and my mom paid for her entry so I really wasn't a bandit.  I just wouldn't have an official time because I had no bib/chip.)

From 80 degrees on Thursday to 40s and COLD on Sunday, I bundled up for the race.  Dad picked us up at 9:00 (Dave would spectate and freeze his tail off) and we headed down to campus.  The race was LARGE with lots of pink.  We miraculously found a parking spot and a bathroom and waited for the start.  This race must have been bigger than anticipated because the start left a lot to be desired.  Dave told me after the race that the last of the people to cross the start line barely got out of there in enough time for the finishers to come through the chute (same area).  The start was on a tiny two lane road right behind the stadium, then a right hand turn and straight up a bridge.  Of course.  We weren't even a half mile in and I already had to walk.  But then things flattened out and I was jogging pretty steadily.  I hit the first mile in 10:30ish.  Nice.  The next mile had another incline over another bridge, which slowed me to a walk, but then it was all jogging from there.  I hit the second mile also around 10:30ish and the third mile around 10:00.  Wow!  I was doing pretty well.  It's so much easier for me to run in the cooler weather in this pregnancy.  My time via my watch was 32:34.  Another PR (pregnancy record).  Dave, dad, and I all found each other and headed out to the field at Ohio Stadium for a picture op.

I am signed up for one more 5K this year and probably will do a 4 miler at Thanksgiving, which will put me at 20 and 21 weeks pregnant and will top my "12 for 2012 Challenge" of 12 races in 2012.