Shamrock (Towne Bank) 8K

My goodies! I forgot to include the bag we got in the picture. And the tiara was my own purchase but I had to include it in the picture. I can no longer say the longest race I've done is a 5K! I walked an 8K on Saturday with my girlfriend J and we had a blast. She and I finished in 1 hour and 45 minutes. We weren't trying to set a record or break a personal record we just wanted to finish. And we did!! I admit I was tired at the end and feeling run down. But I was so proud of us. I did great until about mile 4 then I started to feel a bit ready for the finish line lol. My goal for next year is to finish it in a shorter amount of time.

A few race day observations...parking was a hassle they directed us to parking garages and then charged us $10 to park. To me they could have included that in the race fee.

The start was well organized...we were in Corral 6 (the last one) so we walked about 7 blocks before we ever got to the finish line. But it wasn't too bad. And our start was good. The route was flat so that made for a nice walk.

At the end we had a few frustrations...other people had finished and weren't paying attention to those of us still walking so they would walk across the route, stand in the route, etc. I guess I feel like they had the opportunity to race in a clear route and we should too. I kinda felt like that was partially the volunteers who stopped keeping the route clear. They said we had up to 2 hours to finish so keep the path clear for 2 hours. And the Celebration Party at the End was very disorganized. They had free food and free beer but not really clear indications of where to go to get it. We ended up leaving and going to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. It was delish!!

But overall I had a great time and I would definitely do it again!! I was a little sore the next day but not too bad. And for the first time I'm actually thinking about trying to do a 10 miler or a half marathon. I'm just not sure how it works for walkers.