Media Five Mile Race

This is Dave and I on Veterans Square after the race.

I had two goals for this race. #1) To Finish. I managed that with minimal walking. I walked through several water stops and again on my way to the 8th Street hill the second time around. The hill was goal #2) Run up the hill both times. Dave sat at the top of the hill for motivation. It worked. :) I had two private goals as well. The first two were the only ones that really mattered. The second two were "it would also be nice if..." wishes. #1) Finish in less than one hour (done!) #2) Finish in 55 minutes or less (made it by 28 seconds!).

This is me coming up the hill the second time. The Media Five Miler is two 2.5 mile loops. The 8th Street hill comes up the first time between mile 1 and 2 and the second time between mile 3 and 4. I was muttering to myself at this point "Who's idea was this".

I was amazed at the number of people running and the number of spectators. The race caps at 1200 - or so they say - I know I saw at least one bib # over 1200 though so I'm not sure how that works. I expected a lot of spectators on State Street - and there were - but truly on every street at every corner there were lots and lots of people! This was very helpful in terms of motivation. They cheered, some played music, some held signs, and some put out spray from their hoses in case you wanted to cool off.

Phillyfit was very helpful to me for this race. I ran it because I coudn't run with the group today (6 miles) so I decided to do the 5 mile race instead. I have taken in lots of advice from Phillyfit. No one is shy about offering it and no question is every smirked at either. It's a truly supportive environment. If I heard it once I heard it a thousand times "Don't go out too fast" I think this went a long way toward the goal of finishing. If I had gone out too fast I no doubt would have run out of steam at the end. As it was I walked some as I said above, but I didn't let that bother me and even with the walking bits I made my secret goal of less than 55 minutes.

Toward the end.. during the last half mile.. I started to wonder if this was all I could do. Was the marathon an unrealistic goal. But a year ago I wouldn't have even thought about trying this and now I did it. So I'll stick with the plan and see how far I can go.

So now it's on to continue training and possible sign up for the Philadelphia Distance Run on September 21st. I think I'll decide about that by the end of the week.

Here are my official results from the Media Five Mile web page.

MEDIA 5 MILE RUN
Race Date:06-20-08
Bib Number 655
First Name Paula
Last Name Tansey
City Media
State PA
Zip 19063
Sex F
Age 48
Time 54:32
Pace 10:54.4
Place 1013
Gender Place 382/465
Age Group Place F45-49: 26/34
Masters Age PLP 49.5%