A&F Challenge 5K 2014

All the neighborhood kids including Anderson pre-race.

This year's A&F Challenge was a bit of a cluster for Dave and I.  We signed us and my sister up by the deadline for employees.  That same day, after we signed up, we received an invitation in the mail for free entries since our neighborhood is so close that they don't want to inconvenience us.  So we asked some friends if they wanted to run and use our free entries.  Sounds great so far, right?

The day of the race, Friday evening, everyone was supposed to congregate at our house at 4:45.  My sister showed up around 5:00 and we waited and waited for our other friends to show up.  Our neighbors were taking Anderson and it became time to get over there or we were going to miss the race at 5:45.  We took our friends' numbers and entry wristbands and I texted them furiously.  Finally, we lined up at the start line with probably about 3 minutes to go.

Thanks Amy for airbrushing me and making me look so young.

Just as we were about to start I received a text back from our friends.  They had to work late and would not make the race.  I let them know the party continued after the race and to come on out.  Unfortunately, they never made it.

I was lined up way at the back of the pack as that's the closest I could get since we got there so late.  Amy told me to go ahead so I did.  I had had a pretty big week of running thusfar and didn't think it would be prudent to "race".  So, I kinda made this a tempo run.  Mile 1 involved a lot of bobbing and weaving to get through the pack - 7:33.  Then I was able to get moving and continuing picking up the pace.  

Mile 2 - 7:24

Mile 3 - 7:13

Usually I dread the 5K but with all the training I've been doing this race seemed really short and I was happy with my effort even if I didn't "race" it.  

Time - 22:36

Dave ran about a minute faster and Amy came in just over 30 minutes.  We then met back up with our neighbors, let Anderson play in the bouncy house, and ate and drank lots of good food.  

Next year we'll wait for our free entries.  :)