So in the morning of the 5k I went on my first Team Challenge practice at the San Thomas Aquino and walked and that was 3 miles.
My 5k was at 6:30PM in Oakland. I drove up around 3PM so I can go to the Oakland Convention Center for the Health Expo and to pick up my race packet- t shirt, timing chip, and bib. The 5k was SOLD OUT! 1100 registered for it! So amazing!
Talk about an organized race! I got so many e mails about what to expect, what to do, and how grateful the city of Oakland is. This was the inaugural race and it hasn't been in Oakland for 25 years! I'm so excited that I was able to run in this inaugural race and I look forward to doing it next year as well.
The health expo was really neat. Some of the booths that were there and giving out fun freebies were: Geico, Rock N Roll Marathon, See Jane Run, Cliff Bars, TEAM CHALLENGE, At&t Giant Race, etc. So after exploring I asked where Lake Merrit was beause thats where we were running. It was 3 miles away! This was about 5PM so I asked if there was parking around there and the person I asked said it would be really hard to find parking so me and Cindy walked it. I definitely wouldn't have walked if I knew it was 3 miles because originally someone said it was a little bit over a mile AND if I knew there actually WAS parking. haha.
So when I finally saw the Lake it was close to 6pm and I realized I LEFT MY PHONE AT THE CONVENTION CENTER! I was like OMG - how am I going to walk back, find my phone, and do this race?!? I seriously was about to have a nervous break down. What if I don't run this!?! My amazing friend Cindy offered to walk back and get it while I went to the starting line. Thank goodness she actually found it and everything worked out. :)
The lake was so beautiful and running the 5k in the evening was great! The path around the lake was pretty flat and on concrete. We didn't run on the street at all really so we didn't have to worry about traffic. The race was organized and had runners start by their pace time which was good so we weren't in the way of those fast runners. Their were people at the 5 minute pace spot! WOW! This is where I met Jin because we were around the 11 minutes pace mark. We were so excited to do this race! There were a lot of people cheering us on and I had music on pumping me up. My goal was to beat my time! I tried to work really hard for that and IT HAPPENED! I beat my time!!!
33:33 minutes My first 5k at the Chinese New Year Run in Chinatown SF my time was 37:56 minutes. I beat it by 4:23 minutes!! I will try to beat this time on my next 5k run.
Here is a video that my friend Cindy took of me GUNNING it at the finish line because I so desperately wanted to finish strong and beat my time!
At the finish line there was water ready for us, a band playing, and we got two free beers! It was a very yummy light beer that I'd never tried- Miller Genuine Draft with only 64 calories! Oakland Firemen were passing them out as well. Their was also Rib n' Things that had a tent and was selling food and we had to hit that up too! Ribs went well with that beer!
We also got to meet Mark Curry- he was cheering the finishers on! Definitely and local celebrity and representing Oakland well. He was on the show Hanging with Mr. Cooper that was based out of Oakland. I told him that my boyfriend talks about him because they both went to the same high school- St. Joe's! He said "you have the best boyfriend." haha. He was super nice!
All in all the 5k was a success! Even though I had the morning Team Challenge practice, almost lost my phone, walked to the 5k, ran the 5k, then walked 3 miles back to the car. haha. It was so exhausting but it felt good! I can't wait for my next race in April! Its a 10k too! Woo!
Here are the rest of the beautiful pictures from Oakland Running Festival 5k!
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