Kaiser Permanente Women's Fitness Festival 5K Race Recap 6/4/17

It had been a while since I raced a 5K so when my friend Lenora asked if I wanted to join her in a local 5K, the Kaiser Permanente's Women's Fitness Festival, I was up for it. We signed up about 2.5 weeks before the run. I didn't have any type of training plan but tried to get a couple of speed workouts in. I was in hopes of getting a PR but I wasn't sure I would get it when I decided to go out with friends the night before the race. :p

PACKET PICKUP: Packet pickup was at Fleet Feet Sports. It's great because they had pick up starting on Wednesday up until race day morning (so many days to choose from for pick up). We picked up on Wednesday and they even had this cute tent set up. We got our bibs and shirt quickly with not many people there. It is always fun checking out the Fleet Feet store in Sacramento. 

We even got a demonstration of how to use some Trigger Point products. We tried out the massage ball and quadballer. I especially liked the massage ball! 

RACE DAY: The race started at 7:30am. Well with going out the night before with friends and having more drinks than I should have, I got home around 2am. Yep, oops. I had a blast with them but I knew I would probably pay for it come the race. With about 4 hours (probably less) of sleep, I met at my friend, Lenora's house to carpool at 6:15am. I surprisingly felt ok despite the lack of sleep. It took about 20 minutes to get to the parking garage in Sacramento. We parked a bit far from the start line but we ran there as a warm up.

They had lots of porta potty's so the wait wasn't bad to hit the bathrooms before the run.

The race was for both 5K and 10K distances. Our friend Marrie was doing the 10K, while me and Lenora were doing the 5K. Below is our pre-race shot.

Deena Kastor was there at the start so it was pretty neat to see her before we started the race.

Our friend Marrie wanted to be up by the front and at the front we were. She was hoping to do really well in her 10K race. Me on the other hand, didn't really want to be that close to the front but my goal was to try and stick with Lenora and to not throw up. :p 

The race started right on time and we were off. This is probably one of the few races I did not take any pictures during the course. I just wanted to keep my friend Lenora in my sights for the race and taking a picture would definitely lose me time in such a short race. I was good the first mile but after that, she was off and I just couldn't keep up. I did the best that I could after losing her but I figured my late night was catching up to me. I even saw Marissa on the course pass me. 

According to my Garmin my mile split times were:

mile 1 - 7:27

mile 2 - 8:17

mile 3 - 8:08 

I gave it all I could that last mile and was so happy to cross that finish line.

Photo credit: @myEPevents

To my surprise, I actually PR'd! I was very happy with my results!

 It was also nice to have local firemen hand out the medals. :)

I also got to meet some Instagram friends in real life. Here I am with Melissa aka aspiredrunning.

 

I also met Marissa, she's one fast lady! She's the one I saw and passed me on the course. It was really great to meet her and it was fun hanging out with her for some post race activities. I'm hoping to see her more in future races!

There were lots of post race goodies. They had the usual bottled water right after you received your medal but there were also a bunch of other booths to browse. They had a big Asics tent where you can shop and Kaiser Permanente had a bunch of health and wellness booths to check out. Whole Foods provided fresh fruit, granola with yogurt, and orange juice which was nice. There was also a mimosa garden but unfortunately when we headed over it was closing up. We thought that was strange since there were still people finishing the 10K. I guess next time it should be our first stop.

Here is our post race pic. Both me and Lenora got personal bests in the 5k and Marrie won the 10K. She is amazing!!

The bling was pretty cool too. Love that they gave medals for the 5k. The shirts had a great design too. Both Lenora and Marrie are wearing them in the pic above.

Overall, it was a great race. It is put on well and pretty organized. The only thing I did not like was the mimosa garden closing early. Hope they consider keeping it open longer for future races. I can see myself doing this one again since it is not too far from home and maybe next time I will be better rested and can try for an even better time! :)

Happy running!