Last night was the Manchester Mile and 5K. The race was organized by Millennium Running, a local running company that was founded by John Mortimer in 2010, and they put on awesome events. The evening started off with a 5K at 5:30 followed by a downhill Mile at 6:20 that recorded the fastest mile last year at 3:44!!

I signed up for the 5K with my CRP. It was my first ever evening race.

My husband decided to run the 5K too, so we met up with my CRP at bib pickup and registration in Derryfield Park. Derryfield Park is pretty much on top of a hill and we could feel a nice breeze. It was a beautiful day for a race and hanging out in the city.

While we were waiting we ran into a teacher-running-friend from school, Jen.

I also ran into Janine, a fellow FitFluential Ambassador, and her mom. Love their outfits!

I did not prepare for this race at all and thought of it totally as a fun run. I had a light lunch around noon consisting of a salad and some Quaker Rice Snacks - nutritious, I know. I didn't look at the course map (if there was one) and checked the location on the way to the race as I navigated. I did manage to grab a few of Sports Beans and my Simple Hydration Water Bottle when we left the car.

Turned out to be one heck of a course!

I started the race keeping pace with my CRP (who claimed to have an achy IT band) and we jetted through the first mile at 7:56! I couldn't keep that pace going into mile 2 which was almost entirely uphill, so we drifted apart as my pace slowed to 9:13 and she kept going. The last mile was a huge downhill to the finish so my pace bounced back to 8:26 even as I struggled with a screaming bladder.

After sprinting to the port-a-potties, I found CRP and then my husband. We chugged some sports drinks and water, chatted, and waited for the start of the One Mile. That's when someone asked my time. I checked my Nike+ GPS watch and saw my time, but I couldn't believe it. Later, after checking the results posted by Millennium Running it was official. I PR'd the 5K with a time of 26:38! We watched the finishers of the Millennium Mile, grabbed some delicious pizza slices, and sat down in Pulaski Park to eat. When the awards presentation was over, we enjoyed the nice mile walk back up to the car.