Leadership Gainesville 34 5K

I know I already ran a race for April, but I couldn't pass this one up. Each year, Leadership Gainesville holds a 5K race at Ironwood. This is pretty cool, because I live at Ironwood, so to show up for this race, I simply had to walk out my front door and across the parking lot to the club house. Pretty neat, huh?

I've run at the golf course before, when they were closed for Thanksgiving, or some rainy day, but it did not prepare me or give me an advantage for this race at all. The race course started in the middle of the 1st fairway and over the 9th fairway to pick up with the cart path. Then we followed the cart path to the 8th hole and went off the golf course into the woods! Yes we ran through the woods past the dumpster and back to the 9th hole, did a loop and finished on the cart path near where we started the race. It was kind of weird, but hey a 5K is a 5K and I love to run!

My friend Liz and her daughter Kayla came to see me run and take some photos for my scrapbook. That is them below.

Here's one she got of me at about mile 2, after my trek through the woods. My calves were killing me and I had to stop to stretch them out, so I probably would have had a better time than I did.I pushed myself for the last mile, I wanted to post a better time than my 5 points of life 5K and here's me crossing the finish line. My official time: 31:20. It's nice to shave almost a minute of your time.I also ran into my friend Wade at the race. Wade has been out of athletics due to a torn ACL and corrective surgery. This was his first race back and he did amazing! I think his time was 32:45 and he pushed me to run faster. (I couldn't let him and his gimp leg beat me! :-)

I'm not sure where my May race is going to be. It seems that the races that I am interested in doing all fall the day after I am on shift and they are all out of town. And with no vacation spots available, I have to find one that fits in with my schedule. There is a posibility that I will be going to North Carolina to visit my Aunt Nancy. If I go, then there is a 5K at Tega Cay, so I will do that. If I don't go, then it looks like the SunState/Great Gainesville Road race 5K on the 30th of May is going to be my May race.

Stay tuned to find out!

April Race - Iron Girl 10K (Clearwater)

April shower's bring May flowers, but there was hardly a drop of rain in sight as 1500 runners lined up for the Iron Girl 10K in Clearwater. I love this race because this was the first ever organized race that I ran last year.

The race starts at Coachman Park right on the water and we run over the Memorial Causeway bridge into Clearwater Beach, turn around and come back for a second go at the bridge. Below is a picture of the bridge:

It's huge! The first mile of the race is all uphill. It makes you consider your strategy. I don't train hills, because there aren't any in Gainesville, so once I made it to the top I was spent. And I still had 5 miles to go. My goal for this race was to beat last year's time which was 1:09:00.

I'm the blur of pink crossing the finish line. My time was 1:07:57, which beat last year's time! Yay! Below is a shot of me with the bridge after I conquered it - twice!Billy is such a trooper. Both years he has gone to this race with me and both years men are outnumbered. The Iron Girl race series is for all women. It's very empowering and they are all about celebrating women. When you approach the end they somehow know your name and the emcee yells out as you cross the finish line, "Iron Girl, Kristina Patten from Gainesville, finishing. Let's hear it! Those cheers are for you, Kristina!" It's really cool.

The swag you get is pretty neat too. This year we got a re-usable bag, a cute little AFLAC duck that talks and an awesome dri-fit running singlet. I'm wearing mine in the pictures.

It was a good race, a good day to race and a good trip overall.

Next race is at Ironwood (which is where I live) on the 15th. It's a 5K and my goal for this one is to finish in under 30 minutes.

Late entry about Sarah's birthday trip to the Keys

My baby sister turned 30 on March 22nd. Her birthday wish was to go to Key West for her 30th birthday. So, Sarah, Mandy (Sarah's BFF) and I packed up and headed to the islands to party like a rock star.

Sarah (on the left) and Mandy and Louie's BBQ. Which wasn't really what we were expecting. This place was super fancy and the dinners were pretty expensive, so we had a drink at the bar and headed to Duval Street.

I don't recall the name of this bar, but there were hundreds of dollar bills plastered to the walls, pillars, and bar. People sign them and staple them all over. It was pretty cool, so we had to make our mark as well.

Here is where the night started to get really fun. After hitting a couple of bars and restaurants and pretty much drinking our way down Duval Street we ended up at Cowboy Bills. It was only about midnight at this point, but look at our rock star now! She was passed out at the bar and we got kicked out because apparently bars don't like this practice. Mandy and I walked back to the hotel with her, tucked her old ass in bed and hit the town for some more drinking and fun.The famous Key West sunset celebration. It was overcast and cool, but they view was still amazing.

Our last night in the Keys, which was Sarah's actual birthday, we drove to Islamorada. We started out the evening at Lazy Days for dinner. Sarah wanted to try lobster and I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face when she took her first bite! She hated it!! But no fear, Mandy and I finished her dinner for her. The waiter brought her a piece of key lime pie with a candle and we sang 'Happy Birthday.' The next stop was the Lore Lei for some more drinks. Here we got hit on by some old guys who wanted us to come back to their condo. Not so much! In an effort to get away from them, we headed to the next bar - The Safari Lounge. What a dump! It was dark and smoky and the clientele was quite suspiscious looking. We had one drink and headed out of there and back to the Lore Lei. After there we headed to the Whistle Stop and shot some pool and had a great time. We were obviously not locals, so we got our fair share of looks, but who gives a shit!? We were having such a great time! The picture below is our re-incarnation of all the pics that we took this weekend. It seems that in every picture, someone had a strange look on their face.

I think she had a good time. Maybe 40 will be in Vegas. ;-)