Today was the day of the event, the Purdue 5k run/walk, which was my first “real” 5k. Although I have run over 400 miles before I even started I was nervous. We all got up at 6am and left the house just after 7am. After we got to the Purdue stadium, they left to go get the camera while I looked around. I first went and signed the large poster which will be hung next year. Once everyone came back we walked around a bit and eventually we saw President Cordova. I was too nervous to actually go say Hi, but Dad drug Justin and I over and just before she went to announce the race, we got a picture with her. Good way to get the day going!

After a few people announced some basics about the race a group of people came to the podium and got all the runners to do some fun exercises to get stretched.

A few minutes before 8:30 it was time to get in place. They had markers for where you would start based on your average pace. I was in the second group, the 8 minute average. I wasn’t sure how I was going to tell when the race started but right at 8:30 coach Hope beat on the drum and I started to see people running. The first half mile was bad because of the sheer number of people trying to run. After that it started to thin out some and get easier to actually run. Along the way there were volunteers cheering you on and every mile there was someone with a sign who was also telling you how long it had been. At the second mile they were handing out Dixie cups of water.

Once I got to the last 2/10th of a mile I saw the finish line and really cranked it up to pass someone who was just in front of me. I ended up finishing in 95th place with an end time of 22:51. The pictures show a longer time because I was back from the real starting line when the race started. My first thought was just to find water which for some reason was a long distance away. However I was glad to see my family at the finish line supporting me. And of course for getting some great pics of yours truly.

After I got some food and water we went inside the stadium and found where they were already posting race results. When running, you have a special sensor which goes on your shoe to track your start/finish of the race. After a bit of searching we finally found my place and I finished in the top 100! My goal is to of course do better next year.

After we did that we sat down in the stadium in the awards section. After they let almost all the racers finish they started it up. Only the top 3 in each division for each gender got an award. Unfortunately my division (25-29) had times far better than mine. I did win a “door-prize” though of a free one-year membership to GoldAndBlack.com. Odd for me since I have almost zero interest in sports of any kind, but hey, it’s nice nonetheless.

After the ceremony we hopped in the car quickly and went home. After a short rest we went to Spring Fest then for some shopping and ended the day with some gardening.

That was my Saturday. How was yours? Until next time…

Written on my iPhone.