Made it a family running event with my 5 & 7 year old running the 1 miler, followed by a 5k for me. My son crushed his PR by a minute (now 7:47!), and won his AG. My daughter skipped (literally, skipped) to the finish in 13 and change. I think she was just in it for promised post-race Slush Puppy. :-) Was super proud of them both! As for me, here's the play-by-play: I only got to warm up for about 7-8 minutes as the kids' race was right before the 5k and I was too busy gushing over them and their performances to go for a jog. I barely made it for one last potty break before heading to the start. I was sweating buckets at the starting line. Never a good sign, especially when you have barely warmed up! It was really humid, and the sun came through the clouds just when we started. The heat is not my friend, but the first mile I thought I was motoring just fine, on track for a sub-7 first mile. My GPS beeped one mile about a tenth of a mile before the 1 mile marker, and it was only a 7:20! Whah? So I tried to pick up the pace, focused on staying with the two girls in front of me. Felt like my level of effort was in the low 7s, but nope, mile marker 2 came along and I was still sucking wind. Looked at my GPS and it was at 2.2. Around the 2 mile mark (I think) there was a stretch of direct sun, and I felt like I was going to pass out, and I wanted to just give up since I felt certain I was way slower than my A goal (to break 22). But then I thought about my son, and how hard he ran, and I thought if my 7 year old can dig deep, I should be able to as well. So then I just focused on racing it. First it was "don't get passed" (I didn't!), and then it was, "pass one more girl" (and I did!). I think I passed her around 2.7. I almost caught up to the next lady too, but had zero kick at the end and couldn't pull it off. Turns out I was 6 seconds shy of getting 3rd overall. I did win my AG, and I came reeeeaaally close to my PR. I do think the course was long, as Salty O. can attest to---my GPS has NEVER been over! And it was a solid 1/10th of a mile over. Anyway, can't say I enjoyed any part of that race as there wasn't any stretch of it where I felt fast and strong and not-like-puking!! But I do feel good about winning my AG, and about being 4th female overall. It wasn't a competitive race, but even so, it still felt kind of cool to be less than a minute out from the top female!