Last night one of the local towns had their annual 5K Pizza run.   I ran it last year with my sister.   I really had no business running it last year as it was only 4 days after completing the NJ State Sprint Tri.   I remember it being hard and walking, but I wnted to run it with my sister.

This year it was different!

This year there was no summer Tri and I’ve been running pretty regularly to say the least.   This year I was going to run it with some friends.    The hot and humid weather also took the night off which apparently never happens for the Pizza Run! There were so many woman from my MRTT group that we hardly fit in the picture.   Some I knew.  Many I didn’t know as the group has exploded these last couple of months in an awesome way.

 I’ve got to say that this really is an amazing group of women.   It is true that everyone has a story to tell.    All this month our group has been featuring Bio’s of different Mama’s who wanted to share.   It is amazing the inspirational stories that so many of these women have from obstacles that they have overcame to their sparkling personalities that shine through.   I’m honored to be a part of this group of BAMR’s!

As far as the Pizza Run went, I again had no plan or expectations.   I knew that I was going to try and run a good race, but I really didn’t plan to push it.   It was going to be a fun run with a freind.    After the group picture, everyone went their ways to the start line.  Genine and I bobbed and weaved to fairly close to the start.   This is a decently sized race with almost 2000 people running.   There are no starting corals and where you start is an important factor in how your race will go.

Gun goes off and we are off.  As always it is very hard not to go off full blast especially in an event like this.   We actually did but I realized it right away and tried to reign us in.   That being said, we still were hauling it.  I felt good and we were keeping a good pace.   I’m not sure at what point, but Genine encouraged me to just go ahead.   As much as I wanted to run with her, I also wanted to really push it and see where it took me.

As far as the actual run went, I was very happy with it.  Yes, I pushed it a bit; but I felt good.   I’m guessing all those cut-downs are paying off!   I felt strong and confident in my faster paces.

I shaved off a few minutes from last years time of 30:45.  Yeah!

Then after catching our breath, it was time for some pizza because they don’t call it a pizza run for nothing!

I’m using Genine’s pizza post race picture today because she takes a much better one than me!

Can’t wait for next year as this race is getting more and more fun!

Do you race for food?