Illinois I-Challenge 5K Recap

So, Lisa and I headed to Champaign-Urbana on Friday morning to partake in the Illinois Marathon hoopla.

Not before I could do this...

The pixie is back and better than ever!! You know I was really getting some hair depression. I think I may just be destined for short hair so why try to fight it. Only downside...

I can't pull off cute Bondi Bands any more. 

Anyway, we got to Champaign-Urbana around 4pm and it was pretty clear that based on the traffic and parking situation... we'd be changing for the 5k in the bathroom instead of our hotel room. No biggie. I've changed in the back of a friend's minivan before so a stadium bathroom is more than sufficient for this girl.

Packet pick up ran really smoothly, there were tons of volunteers and our timing devices were attached securely to the back of our bibs. We picked up our two shirt bags and wandered around the expo briefly. Since I am responsible now, I only bought some BodyGlide and race day toss away gloves. They did have a ton of cute gear and if I was rocking the full marathon, I probably would have gotten a singlet or something. Brooks did all their gear and I just love Brooks clothing. I also noticed how much cheaper it was compared to the Chicago marathon specific gear. Interesting Nike, interesting. 

Lisa and I were ready to run by 6:30pm so we headed to the 5k start. It was windy and a tad chilly. We both rocked long sleeves for this one and I really didn't get hot until the very end of the race. We both planned to run SUPER EASY and by super easy I mean a 33 minute 5k or something. Lisa was/is nursing a hip injury and I was scared of burning too much juice the night before a half. Since I was pretty under-trained, it seemed logical.

As the race started, I felt good and since it was a fairly large 5k, the energy of the crowd was fun. 

Did we keep a slow, restful pace? Not really. 

Was I relieved to feel pretty comfortable running 9ish min miles? Yeah. 

As we began our final turn into the stadium, I realized that I did do my kick a tad early, but I still managed to finish reasonably strong. 

All in all I'd call it a success. I didn't go as slow as I had planned, but I felt good enough that I didn't really worry about it. I also don't think it detracted from my half marathon experience either and anything under 30:00 minutes is definitely good enough for me.

xo,
falon