Mission 22: Run for Hope 5K

On October 11, 2020, I ran a live race! It's been quite a while since I've run one and although I went to the Indy Women's Half Marathon live race, I ended up DNFing the race as I wasn't feeling well with my allergies and after six miles I was literally done with the race, lol. It also felt weird being around the thousands of runners there so I think that might have played a bit with my mind as I never felt comfortable in that race at all.

But the Mission 22: Run for Hope was substantially smaller race than the Indy Women's Half and was also for a great cause.

Mission 22 supports veterans by providing veteran treatment programs, memorials, and community social impact, especially to those veterans that have suffered from traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries.

It was a 5K, a distance you know I hate, ha, but being of a great cause and held at the Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park, which means the course was hilly and gorgeous in the Fall, it was a chance for me to go out there and race a short distance, which I don't get to do often. So I registered.

It was nice to be around the race atmosphere and near my running group again. Masks are required in the state and every race has masks required before and after the race and around others. The park was gorgeous as the colors changed earlier in the year than last year. Sadly it wasn't Fall weather and around 64F and humid that day. Not too bad for my lungs but I was not going to try to race this one as my running in October took a hit between me feeling bad with my allergy shots and my asthma being an issue. But it was nice to try and race even if not at a race pace.

The race started and I started near the end (ahead of the walkers but behind the faster runners). We headed up the trail and from Mile 0.30 to Mile 2.5 or so, the race was full of hills. Mostly uphills of course, as I never seem to get the same amount of downhills to compensate, ha. I knew after that there was a nice downhill coming when the loop went back to the start but I tackle the hills like I've been living in IN for a long time instead of for a year. These are the same hills and similar route to the half marathon I ran last October with hills that kicked my ass. But this time, they didn't.

I only had to walk around 0.03 miles of a super steep hill so I was pleasantly surprised at how my legs were used to hills now. We turned around into another path that would take us back to the start and the downhill was nice. I just wish the last half of the course was downhill, ha.

As me and a group of runners were heading to the last 0.30 miles of the race, we accidentally turned right into part of the 1 mile course, so we added around 0.2 miles if not more per my Garmin. I ended up with 3.37 miles or something around there and finished in 36:44 or a 10:57mm per my watch (or 12mm+ per the course). I didn't care about the time at all but I was surprised I was able to run that fast after weeks of struggling with breathing and needing to stop during runs to cough. And in two weeks, I would run a better 5K on Halloween (which you will have to read about on my next post). :)