When I finished yesterday's Race for the Cure 5K, I told the BF I was sure the course had been measure wrong. There was no way I had run a 9 minute first mile after getting stuck behind tons and tons of people and being forced to walk part of the beginning of the race because there was just no where to go.

Some guy in front of me heard my comment and turned around to show me his Garmin had measured the course at 3.13 miles. I was stunned. (And apparently this is why Garmins are awesome.)

The reason I was stunned was because that means my time of 27:36 was a legit finishing time on a legit 3.1 mile course, which means I finished the race in under 28 minutes, my A goal!

It also marks the first time in my life (at least since I started running to train for races three years ago) that I ran faster than a nine minute mile. My average pace was 8:54, according to the official results. Whooo!

I think maybe some of the credit goes to the absolutely disgusting weather. I have to think I was running faster because I wanted to finish and get the hell out of the freezing cold and rain. At race time the "feels like" temp was 39 degrees with 13 mph winds and rain. I had on my UA tights, my cold gear top, another shirt on top of that and then gloves and my ear warmer. I was still freezing, but warmed up once I started moving. I even ended up pulling my gloves off toward the end of the race. They were soaking wet and my hands were burning up.

After I finished, I waited for the BF, who crossed the finish line in just under 30 minutes. Pretty impressive for a guy who hasn't run once since our half marathon Labor Day weekend. I have to credit some of his athleticism to all the volleyball he plays. I think he's playing in three different leagues this fall.

My roommates walked the course, so lucky them got to bundle up in nice heavy jackets and scarves and hats and gloves. They were pretty much immune to the weather. By the time they finished about 45ish minutes later, I was a shivering mess so I couldn't stick around with them to check out the race village.

Once I got back into the heat of my car, I eventually thawed out. The BF and I celebrated a great race by grabbing some bagels from the place by my house. I had a Honey Wheat bagel with pumpkin cream cheese, tasted just like pumpkin pie! Delicious!

So despite the weather, it was a fun time. I'll leave you with the very few pictures I managed to take.

Me with my very bundled up roommates.

The BF right before he finished. He's the behind the girl in pink's shoulder. (This was a much better picture before girl in pink and her friend, dude in black, veered right into my picture)