A letter from Aug 05, 2024

Dear FutureMe, I ran a 5K. It was two days ago, August 3rd, at LCS. I was - and am!!! - so so proud of how I did. I told myself and everyone that I would be proud regardless, just for doing it anyway. But I did it, so so much better than I expected to. I ran it July 23rd at 34:07 (10:58/mi); it had just rained and was rather muggy. I also realized Dalton was horribly long and it was all mostly uphill. I ran it again July 30th at 32:59 (10:34/mi); it also rained and was muggy (and I ran it as 1K repeats with Runna). I was a bit frustrated because I had run 5K at 30:32 before, and I was nowhere near that. I did a few speed "workouts" over the next few days, but realized I had to settle with knowing it will be what it will be. The weather finally got better, and it slowly stopped getting so hot and humid, which was absolutely lovely. And the morning of, the weather was so good I didn't even give it a second thought until after. 28:54 My official race time was 28:54 And Strava said it was 28:28. I cut my time down by nearly five minutes. That's insane. I know running with people feels so different, but I didn't expect that much of a difference. And that includes at least *two* minutes of walking (which is insane). I'm so proud. So so proud. Second in my age group. Sub-30. 28:54