My First 5K Run

I ran my first 5K fun run on Sunday December 12th at the Seattle Jingle Bell Run. It's put on every year by the Arthritis Foundation & this was the 26th year. Seattle's is the largest Jingle Bell run in the country & about 12,000 people ran it this year.

I got up that morning at 4am & the stomach butterflies started almost right away. I left for Rachel's at 5am we drove to downtown Seattle and breakfast at 13 Coins. I had the french toast. Yummy! We made our way to Westlake Center to pick up our packets & change for the race.

Seattle was experiencing a rainstorm and the streets were slightly flooded in spots. We reluctantly left the cover of the sidewalk awnings & made our way to the middle of the street & the starting line. Thankfully most of the race was run on the covered I-5 express lanes. However, the worst part of the race was not the rain. It was the walkers & strollers. You would get stuck behind the walkers and have to maneuver your way around them. The runners pushing strollers had to start during last wave & many were pushed by obviously elite runners. They would mow you down from behind with little or no warning.

Despite all this I turned in a finishing time of 38 minutes 59 seconds. We stretched in the Westlake Center as stores were opening and shoppers were showing up for the day. Overall, I felt a little disappointed in my first race. It wasn't my time, but the dodging the huge crowds of people that made the experience lackluster. The biggest lesson I learned from this race was to avoid races that allow strollers, walkers, & tend to register more than 10,000 participants