Fort Worth Zoo Run 5K

On Saturday, I ran the FW Zoo Run 5K with Deborah and Tari (friends/ co-workers from Citi).   I was really excited about this race....mainly cause I wanted to beat my time from the Cowtown 5K.  I know for a fact I've improved in the past couple of months.  I run faster on a daily basis.  At the time of the Cowtown, I averaged about a 10:30 min/mile.  I now average about a 9:30 min/mile.  So I just KNEW that I was going to be able to improve my 5k time by at least a couple of minutes.

The Zoo run consisted of a 10K timed race, a 5K timed race, a 5K fun run and a 1 mile fun run.

The 10K was coming to an end about the time we got there and the 1 mile fun run had started.  I just ASSUMED that the 5K timed and the 5K fun run would be 2 different races.  Well...you know what happens when you assume.  Turns out, both 5K races were running together.  I'm still VERY confused as to why you had to specify which you were running if you were in fact going to be running the exact same race!

So, needless to say there were tons of walkers.  Tons of strollers.  Tons of children.  Tons of people in my way! LOL (not really lauging...but trying to not be annoyed!)

I literally spent the first half of the race dodging people (proof below).  It was ridiculous.

Needless to say, I didn't beat my time.  In fact, I finished 4 seconds slower.

Would I do it again?  Sure....but I would do it for fun...and not to beat a personal record!  Lesson learned!

BEFORE THE RACE
(Deborah, Me, Tari)

AFTER THE RACE

I realize nobody else reading this could care less, but I want to keep record of my races/progress.  I'm considering starting a weight loss/fitness blog to document my efforts, although I would probably only have like 1 reader!

Anyway....here's the path.  You can see the star and finish were at the same spot.  The red/orange are where I ran the slowest.  The green/yellow were faster.  Towards the end (in the green), I was running at a 7:21 pace!  But at the start...and halfway thru, it was as high as 11:16....SO frustrating!  Half the race was literally thru the zoo....and those paths just are not large enough for that many people to run at once!  And by the time you were done dodging everyone, you had exhausted so much energy, you didn't have a lot left to power thru to the end!

MY RACE STATS
(so I can track my progress....cause I'm super competitive with myself like that!)

Time:  28:32

116th girl to finish (1691 total) - top 6.8%

378th to finish overall (2661 total) - top 14%

16th in my age group to finish (248) - top 6.4%

Would LOVE to finish in top 10% overall.....and top 5% of gender/age.....maybe next time!