My 1st Race with the We Are Athletes Racing Team

Saturday morning was my first official race as part of the “We Are Athletes” racing team!!!! I have run many 5K’s but this one seemed more important because now I am part of a team that was depending on me to do my best.  I left my house at 6:45, got a cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts and headed over to the race to meet the rest of my team.

I apologize in advance for not having many pics but I was just so excited to be a part of the team that I just forgot to take more.  Here is a pic of me prior to the race in my official “We Are Athletes” singlet.

Prior to the race all the women warmed up as a team and then headed on over to the start line.  I never realized how many teams run these races until I joined the “We Are Athletes” team.  I have to say that if you have never been on a running team then you should definitely check out joining one because I am so inspired and motivated by all of my team members that it makes running even more enjoyable than it is already.

Our team consists of people of every age group (13-to 70+), every ethnicity and every shape and size.  We are a well rounded group and our senior team wins all the time!!!  They are an inspiration to me because if I can run like them in 30 years I will be a very happy runner!

This is a pre-race pic of all our runner’s (and our coach, Fred) for the Women’s 5K:

This was a great team of women who encouraged and motivated me throughout the race.  Some of our male team members were on the race course also motivating each and every one of us the whole time we were running!!!  I cannot tell you how awesome it feels to be a part of a team!!!  Maybe I feel this way because growing up I was so sick with asthma that I never participated in sports or was part of any type of team but I have found it to be an amazing experience and I have only just begun my time with them.

Usually I find when you bring a group together that includes women there tends to be cliques and cattiness that disrupt the whole experience but I can tell you first hand from belonging to this team you will find none of that immaturity here!!!  All you will find is support and true happiness for the other members of the team even if they finish faster!!!!

The race itself was great!  It was a flat course but even though it started at 8:30 am it was still extremely hot but thanks to mother nature most of our run was under cloud cover.  I started out way too fast as I usually do so by the 3rd mile I was dying but I pushed as hard as I could and ended up running a 26:09 5K!!!  Here are my splits according to my Garmin:

Not a bad race overall but I should have started out slower and pushed harder at the end!!!  In addition my shins have been hurting along with my left quad so that didn’t help matters much.  Here is my official time:

I ended up placing 9th in my age group!!  I remember running races when I was in my 20′s and I always placed either 2nd or 3rd in my age group in just about every race which means either people are running faster now or more people are signing up for races.

Overall this was a great race and many of my fellow team members won awards for placing in their age groups which is absolutely awesome!!!  I cannot wait for my next race with this team!!!!

Have you ever races with a team???