5k on your wedding day? Why not?

No, I'm not the one gettin hitched, so don't go thinking all crazy on me...

As part of the Gibson/Phelps wedding extravaganza that took place in the bustling metropolii (see what I did there?) of Clarksville, TN and Trenton, KY, we decided to run a 5k in Clarksville the morning of the wedding... Typical Kendrick/Sara...

The thing is, prior to the race, I hadn't trained... AT ALL... I had spent the previous week in South Carolina on a job interview (which I got!) and finishing up submitting my dissertation (which I did!)... I had brought my running shoes with me, but ended up falling into the "post reinforcement pause" that Dad explained to me (in short, it's where you lose all motivation after you hit a big accomplishment)... So I spent the week in Columbia kind of bumming around town, half assed looking for a place to live, and checking out the bike shops and running shops (which is clearly more important than me finding housing)...

Packed up and left Columbia on Friday... Got to Clarksville and had little time to really relax before having to go out to the Chapel for the rehearsal... Definitely got talked into running the next morning, which was pretty easy since I convinced Chad to pay my entry fee as part of his hotel expense...

So we wake up, grab coffee, and head to the race site... My sister went to college at Austin Peay, so I felt like I was sort of familiar with Clarksville (even though I turned out to be wrong)... the race site was at the Beachaven Winery, which I remember the name of from when my sister was in school, but never actually went to because I was but a wee lad back in those days...

Course was a simple out and back on a fairly flat stretch of highway... I tried to get in a good warmup, did some static stretching, and did some pick ups/striders to get the HR up to race pace... I felt ready...

Then I went out way too fast...

First mile was 8:14, and every mile after that increased by 10 seconds... there was a bit of a tailwind going out, which clearly helped me post up a quick first mile... I started feeling like I was going to hurl around mile 2.2 (I remember it clearly!) but I didn't want to a) hurl or b) walk, so I just dropped off my pace and decided to run comfortably... Here's the link to the Garmin file: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/184635846

Crossed the finish line in (unofficial/Garmin) 25:38, which I felt was respectable considering I hadn't run in over a week and felt pretty out of shape...

Both Kendrick and Sara won overall male and female, which was pretty cool since they were the "main event" for later that day... Chad picked up 3rd overall...

I'm still having fun with racing and am still excited to see where this season goes! Although I absolutely hate running 5k races, I think it would help my run off the bike to run open 5k's as often as possible...

Thanks for reading...