Hills, friends, and finishing strong: the 2012 Arbutus 5K

I just returned from a morning run with my husband-to-be. Now, I'm spending my remaining pre-work hours on my favorite post-vacation hobby: Catching Up On Life. My "catching up on life" to-do list includes blogging about several recent events. First up: my most recent race!

The Arbutus running crew!

 On Saturday, Andrew and I ran the 3rd annual Arbutus 5K Spring Fling, organized by my original running buddy, Val. The first running of this race, back in 2010, was the subject of my first-ever blog post about a race. Since then, both the race and Val's crew of running buddies has grown (see above). In 2010, just Val and I ran this race together. This year, we had a whole pack!

What has not changed about this race is the challenging course. Even though it is "just a 5K," the combo of hills and sun had me thinking "when will this be over?" by about the 1.5-mile mark. Last year, I got a jolt of inspiration around mile 2 when I caught up with a usually-faster running buddy. This year, I was on my own and I had a tough time staying motivated. I actually walked for a few seconds on an uphill- something I haven't done in a 5K in years. I finished in 29:06, which was nowhere near a PR, but still under 30 minutes. Lately, my 5K mantra is "Just finish under 30."

Andrew did much better. Having heard my war stories about the sun and the hills, he was anxious about this race. Still, he finished nearly 2 minutes faster than his first 5K! He also made his first finish line sprint. While we were in London, we went for a run in beautiful Hyde Park. During that run, I gave a mini-lecture about finishing strong: "When you can see the finish line, go all out." I'm pretty sure he was exhausted by the time we finished that run, but he surprised me by sprinting as soon as he could see the park gates. Then, he did it again in the race! It was awesome to see him zipping across the finish line.

In Hyde Park, London. 

I can't wait to see who joins our pack for next year's race!