Saturday I ran a local 5k for the 6^th year in a row. The previous five years I’ve been pregnant or pushing a kiddo in the jogger, so my times have never been great. Race day is always super hot and humid, which makes the hills that much tougher.

That all changed this year.

I wasn’t pregnant or pushing one of the children in the jogger. And the weather was unexpectedly cool- in the 50s- and not as humid as normal.

I went into the race with some sore muscles from Thursday’s 11 mile training run (just a few more weeks until my half marathon!) and I had (and still have) a cold that the boys brought home from nursery at church to share with the rest of us.

Despite that, I was able to run a good, hard race. I was able to run most of the uphills, which is an achievement. After an initial downhill portion for about two thirds of a mile, there’s an uphill that’s just under a mile long. It’s not super steep like the hill in this race or this race, or even this race, but it is unrelenting.

The last half of the race is a mix of up and down hill sections. There’s really no flat spots in this race- it’s either uphill or downhill. At least it ends on a downhill. I ran a trail half marathon a few years ago that ended on an uphill. It was so brutal. Uphill finishes are the worst.

If I’m running on the treadmill, I’ll watch Netflix, but I don’t listen to music when I run races. I prefer to listen to what’s going on around me and be in my own head. All the better to appreciate the bands and people cheering the runners on 🙂 I do carry my phone, my car key, and a tube of lip balm in a small waist pack. It’s big enough to hold my iphone 6s in a Lifeproof case (totally worth the money!) as well as the other items I mentioned. (updated 9/2018: the waist pack also fits my new iPhone 8 in its Otter Box Defender case) I can also fit a package of shot blox in there for a longer run.

As you’ll see by my times below, I am by no means a fast runner, but that’s not why I run. I run to challenge myself, to push myself harder than I thought I could go, to prove to myself that I do have energy to do hard things, to set a good example for my children, to relieve stress, to ponder my life, the reasons go on…

I’ve run this race enough times to know what to expect, which both helps and hinders my mental game. I haven’t run enough hill repeats to be able to tackle hills like I’d like to, but the mileage I’ve put in while training for the half helped me power through the race.

In the end, I was able to cut almost four and a half minutes off my previous best time in this race. It’s not a personal record (my current PR is 30:38 from a 5k I ran in March), but it is right in line with my yearly PRs from the last several years, which were all in the 33 minute range. Considering how challenging this race, I’m more than happy with this time.

• 2017 33:46, just me!
• 2016 39:21, pushed Ocean in the jogger
• 2015 41:19, pregnant with Ocean (34 weeks)
• 2014 38:11, pushed River in the jogger
• 2013 40:02, pregnant with River (23 weeks)
• 2012 39:23, pushed Sunshine in the jogger

It’s encouraging to see positive results from the hard work I’ve put in. It’s also nice to see my times going down again finally. I’ve run pretty consistently since 2008, even while pregnant with the boys and breastfeeding them. During that time I’ve seen my times fluctuate with my health, pregnancy, and breastfeeding status. I’m not pregnant or breastfeeding and while I know my hormones are still out of whack from my PCOS, my celiac isn’t bothering me right now and in general I’m feeling pretty good. When added to the more regular training I’ve been doing, my times have been dropping.

Have you seen a payoff for hard work you’ve put in?