TotR: Race Signs, Plus Diva Dash 5K Recap

This week’s Tuesdays on the Run topic is Favorite Spectator and Race Signs.  Thanks as always to Erika, Patty and April for hosting!

I looked through my photos and can’t find any pictures of race signs, which is a little sad because I really do enjoy them. My first real encounter with them was at my first 10K in Omaha a couple of years ago. I was so amazed to see people out cheering and remember punching the “Power Up Here” poster I passed in the last mile (I’m convinced it helped!). My favorite sign at Princess was Peggy Sue’s “Hello Complete Stranger I’m Proud of You Too”, undoubtedly. After months of reading about it, when I finally got there and saw that she was really was there, I was so struck by her radiating enthusiasm for all of us and by the realization that I was really about to finish my first half marathon. I love that so many people have carried on her spirit and her sign since her passing. At the Star Wars Half Marathon, my favorite sign was a little boy holding up a poster that said “General encouragement all around but mostly Yay Mommy!” I confess, I can’t wait until O can make me a Yay Mommy sign for some race.

There were a few “Yay Mommy” signs at this weekend’s Diva Dash 5K as well. I ran this race last year and had a lot of fun, so I was happy to sign up again this year and check another 3.1 miles off of my 100 miles for the year. My secretary was also going to run it as her 2^nd 5K, so I was excited for the chance to support her as well. I did packet pick up Friday afternoon and got my cute purple shirt shirt, plus my personalized bib (always a nice touch).

Always nice to have your name big and bold 🙂

The race was at 8 am Saturday morning. After running 5.6 miles at home, I changed clothes and gathered up my guys to head out to the race. Happily, the race started at Aksarben Village, which meant that Darrell & O could play on the playground and/or hang out in the cupcake shop while I ran. They took advantage of both.

There were a LOT of tutus on this course.

There were almost exclusively women running , with lots of groups in tutus and mother-daughter pairs. Apparently there were 3 men somewhere but I didn’t see them!  I didn’t see my secretary until about a quarter of mile into the race and then I hung behind her for a while in case she needed a boost. She was very focused so I didn’t want to distract her and truthfully, every time I thought about stopping for a walk break myself in the first mile, I’d see her still going and keep it up myself. I passed her on the first hill, but kept her in sight over my shoulder for the rest of the race. She rocked it!

I took it easy on the hills, which were uber steep. I’d walk at least part of each, knowing that hill work is part of what aggravated my ankle before. I didn’t want to set things back on my first run in a week! Happily, I had no pain. I had a great time chatting with the other women around me, including one mom who said she felt a little guilty for holding her gazelle-like daughter back. Her daughter looked to around 7-8 and was tackling those hills like they were nothing!

It is really hard to take a photo on a course that captures the hills, I’ve realized.

Coming into the last stretch of this race, I remembered last year where I petered out to walk with less than a quarter of a mile to go and got so disgusted with myself. True, I think I only walked a step or two before I made myself snap out of it then, but that kind of mental failure is definitely what I want to avoid in Lincoln in 6 weeks! So, as part on my on-going “mental toughness” practice, I decided that it didn’t matter what my time was but I was going to run from mile 2.5 in. I’m happy to say that I did it! Every so often, my little bad brain voice would pipe up and say “It doesn’t matter if you walk – your time doesn’t matter here” and “You aren’t really racing this, so why push” and I just squashed that voice and kept moving. In all of this mental wrangling, I lost track of Raven, so I was excited to hear them call her name a few seconds after mine as we finished. I grabbed a medal from the box (for some reason no one was handing them out?) and happily awarded her the very first of what I’m sure will be many medals. (**I just found out she got second place in her age group. Yay!!) I grabbed my own medal and some water and we headed back to the cupcake shop where our guys were waiting.

A festive start and finish line (photo snapped pre-festivities, obvs), complete with music and an announcer calling out our names as we finished, thanks to shoe tracking tags.

I told Raven that she kept me running longer than I wanted to in that first mile because she looked so determined and someone else came up to her as we were walking away to tell her the same thing. Newbies, you never know who is watching you! You are seriously an inspiration, whether you realize it or not. We all are.

I don’t think I did a good enough job fueling between my 5.6 miles in the morning (for which I took no fuel, but I did have a snack on the way to the race) and the hilly 5K because I was literally shaking after the run, but otherwise I felt fine. It was nice to run again after a week off and to feel so pain-free afterwards! It’s also always nice to run for a good cause with a bunch of other women out to have a good time on Saturday morning. My official time was slower than last year, but I’m totally okay with that since it came after a long run earlier in the morning and I had such a great mental finish. I’ll definitely do this again next year! After all, there aren’t many 5Ks with bling, right?

Two minutes slower than last year, but I’m okay with that.

Have you gotten medals at 5Ks before? This is the only 5K I’ve run with medals, other than the Castaway Cay 5K and it’s definitely a nice little perk.

I do prefer the crown over last year’s diamond ring design.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Tuesdays on the Run link-up for lots of fun race signs and other running goodness!

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