This past weekend, my husband, Little B, and I headed to Myrtle Beach so I could run one of my fall goal races, the Myrtle Beach Mini, on Sunday. In addition to the half marathon on Sunday, there's also a 5K and 1 mile doggie dash on Saturday. And the 5K has medal. So I figured, hey, I'd be running anyway on Saturday, so why not run the race and get a medal for it in the process. 

I never planned on racing this race and was just using it as a shake out run, so I didn't get myself too anxious about it. But it was nice since I haven't run any races since July to run one before the half on Sunday just to remind myself of what a race feels like. 

One of the things I liked about the Coastal 5K is that it has wave start so the start line and beginning of the race doesn't get too clogged up. There were three waves and they started three minutes apart. I was in the first wave, which I think was something like 25 minutes and under (but I'm not sure). All I did was submit my anticipated finish time when I registered and got my wave assignment when I picked up my bib. I submitted my anticipated time as 24:55. 

Because Little B had had a hideously rough night with teething - we were up from 11 pm until 5 am with him - we decided not to wake him when I left for the race in the morning. The race was right at our hotel, so all I had to do was walk outside to the starting line, which was a nice low-key start for me and it meant I could leave just before when the started at 7:30. So my cheering squad stayed in bed while I headed to the race.

My goal for this race was just to run by feel and keep it pretty easy. The drop in temps sent my easy pace dropping as well. It was in the 50s on race morning and it was a pretty perfect day for racing. I would have liked to have had Saturday's weather on Sunday and had those slightly warmer (and less windy) temps for the half, but somehow my order for perfect weather on half marathon race day got mixed up with someone else's order who asked for wind and temps in the 40s. Glad I packed a long sleeve running shirt.

But anyway...the 5K was generally non-eventful for me. It was a flat, out-and-back course, and I love out and back courses. In my mind, once you get to the halfway point, you're basically finished. Logical. I simply locked into my pace and cruised through the course. I ended up finishing in 25:06 (an 8:05 pace) and was really hoping I'd be able to run at least that pace or faster for the half marathon on Sunday, especially since that pace felt so easy for me on Saturday. I was also hoping Little B would feel better and let me get some more (any) sleep on Saturday night. Sadly, neither of those things happened, but I still had a good race nonetheless. 

This is a race I'll be back for again. And maybe I'll try to race both races sometime instead of taking the 5K easy, but for this year, I'm extremely happy with the results of this and the half marathon (recap for that coming tomorrow!).