Superbowl Shuffle

You may remember from our 2012 goals post that one of my goals is to run a race in every season of this year.  Well, so far, so good!

This past weekend, I ran a Superbowl Shuffle 5k.  As I mentioned last week, I did not have high expectations for this race.  Despite one of my best runs ever early in the week, my shin splints decided to make a return, and I was battling a nasty cold.

Luckily for me, I woke up Saturday morning feeling a LOT better.  Plus, the weather on Sunday was GORGEOUS.  Like out-of-this-world awesome for February in Illinois.

My cousin likes to run as well, and we decided to do this one together.  He, however, is much faster than I am and convinced me to line up with the 7-minute milers.  Mis-take.  Eight minute milers I could probably have hung with, but I was not in these peoples' league.  I did try though.

And then there were hills.  And about a mile and a half in, I started to burn out.  I had to walk twice during the last mile, which I was really not happy about.  However, I ended up finishing in 27:08, which is my second-best (official) 5k, so I have to be positive about that!

When I posted about the race, I set my goal at 28:30.  This was a lie.  :)  I really wanted to beat 27 minutes.  And I was close.  Darn close.  If only I hadn't walked that second time.

Alright, whining complete.

My favorite spectators (including my mom) came to cheer me on, which is my favorite thing about racing.  Afterwards, we used some awesome race-goodie coupons to satisfy my quite drawn-out Chipotle craving.  It was awesome.

All-in-all, this was a super fun race that I would do again in a heartbeat.  Just hoping that next time there are no sniffles!

Does anyone else set goals for themselves and then keep setting them higher?  Or am I crazy?