Second 5k- 3rd Place

Today I ran in my second my 5k (in two weeks), and I actually won a medal! I managed to get 3rd place for my age group with a time of about 36 minutes. The 5k was for the Dayton International Peace Museum in Dayton, OH (the only peace museum in the United States), and the running was around Riverscape. I wasn't sure how well I would do, since it was on asphalt and I'm used to running on the treadmill. I was able to keep a better pace than usual, and ended up running a lot more of it than I usually can. Though running is still nowhere near as much fun as riding bikes, I actually had a lot of fun today. I was able to keep pace with this one woman who was running (she ended up getting second in my age group), and it was funny when I finished, because she said that I was her inspiration while she was mine. It was nice chatting with her at the end, because apparently she had also done one other 5k this year. She had mentioned how she is hoping to do the Air Force Marathon this year (I think there is also a 10k for that), and I think that might be a good goal to shoot for to make sure I can be prepared for the Columbus Marathon in October, though I would do a shorter distance than the marathon portion. I never thought I would be talking so much about running, but apparently I'm starting to enjoy it. It's nice to have friends who are also interested in it as well, because I think we keep each other motivated. My friend Kelly who ran today as well improved her time by 10 minutes from last week (and won a t-shirt in the raffle)! Though I know I won't be able to make such drastic improvements each race, I'm really glad that I'm starting off stronger than I thought I would.

Now that I've taken a much needed nap after the run, I am going to get ready to hang out with my friend Tracy who is back in town from New Jersey. I haven't seen her in almost a year, so it will be great to hang out, have fun, and celebrate everything. We are planning on hitting up a local Mexican restaurant, so I'll probably eat many baskets full of chips and salsa/ queso, because it is very delicious. Then we are planning on going bowling afterwards, which I haven't done in a while, so that will be a lot of fun. I can't wait. I need to start getting ready though, and I probably should stop and get a tea from Boston Stoker since I haven't had one all day. Mmmm... tea...