My first 5k

First of all, they spelled my name correctly! That's a first!
On this last Saturday, Sept. 25th I ran my first 5k race. I didn't really race anyone but myself even though I was surrounded by thousands of women. I had started "training" for this event back in June doing the Couch to 5K program on my iPod. I had completed all 9 weeks of that program a couple of weeks before my big day so I would just pick a distance or time for my run two to three times a week to continute to train.
The night before the race I had everything set out and ready to go. My ride shows up and I grab my pile of stuff and hop into her car. We are parking the car at the shuttle location and I notice that I left my headphones at home, nice.... And then I also realized I had left my pins home to attach my number to my shirt, again....nice going! Oh well, I was up and on my way!
We waited forever for our wave to start the race. My toes were going numb standing around waiting! Meanwhile I am hoping that I can complete this race pain free. During my last 4 or 5 weeks I have had pain in my upper thigh that gets unbearable at about 1.5 miles into my run. And my inner knee on the same leg is painful too.
I left the starting line at a good pace. It is hard to maintain your own pace when so many are running around you. I ran up the hill and made it to the top and then shin splints set in. Ugh.....all this training, all this time and NOW shin splints? What????? So this was about 1.5 miles into my first race and I was VERY discouraged! But I had to keep on going. So I would walk for a few minutes and then run for a few minutes until the shin splints took over again! I crossed the finish line only to see the clock had been stopped...I can only guess that I finished in about 45-50 min! My worst pace ever! After reviewing the hundreds and hundreds of photos taken at the finish line I never did find a photo of me crossing the finish line, wow do I feel like a loser now!
BUT, I did finish the race! I felt great the rest of the day, until the end of the day and my soar throat won the day's race and I had lost my voice completely!

I have signed up for my next 5k event in October. This time the course is flat and I will continue to train and improve!