Gridiron 5k Race Recap

Do you know what starts on Thursday??

If you guessed college football season, congratulations: you're clearly on the same wavelength as me.  Can I get a PTL (that'd be a "Praise the Lord") for the start of college football?  It's finally here!

To start off the season right, J and I decided to run the inaugural Girdiron 5k Challenge sponsored by Orlando Health and Pizza Hut.  Yes, they had pizza after the race.  I suppose if you wanted, you could relive your college years and eat pizza at 8:00 a.m., but I decided to pass knowing that I had both a baby shower and Taste of the Nation later that night.

The race was held on the campus of the University of Central Florida, or UCF.  UCF is a thirty minute drive from our house, so I set the alarm for 6:00 to make sure we were there in plenty of time for the 7:30 a.m. start.  Gosh, I remember when I thought that 6:00 was a late time to wake up on a Saturday.  Yesterday, I was so soundly asleep when the ringing started that I almost forgot why it was going off in the first place.

The "challenge" aspect pit different alumni organizations against each other to see which school could sign up the most runners.  J and I signed up under the Florida team, so this was the back of my tech shirt:

Anybody want a tech shirt, size men's small?

The race looked to be between UCF and Florida, based upon the number of runners wearing black and gold and orange and blue.  There were also a surprising number of Georgia fans and a lone Auburn runner (more on that later).

The logistics of the race were excellent.  Parking was a breeze and real, clean bathrooms were easily available. +100 on my scorecard.

The race started promptly.  We began at Memory Mall then ran around the Alumni Center.  I saw the fountain that students jump into during the Spirit Splash.  We passed a few dorms, then the baseball fields and football stadium.

Source

I know I mentioned in my last post that I had some doubts about J sticking with me during the race, but he did.  In fact, he spent the majority of the race asking me questions to make sure I was truly running at a conversational pace.  At one point, he made me say, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."  I'm sure that wasn't annoying at all to the people around us.

So, that lone Auburn runner:  I was just about to start sprinting to try and catch her at the finish line until J chastised me and reminded me that I shouldn't do that pregnant.  As much as I truly, truly hated watching her beat me, I knew he was correct.  I'll get you next year, Aubie (insert evil laugh here).

J and I finished in 31:15, which is just a teensy bit faster than my last pregnant 5k.   I think the weather helped me here since it was in the high 70s.

Roll Tide, baby!  (Baby should be a Bama fan, right??)

This was the first year for this race (hence the inaugural part), and I will definitely run it again if they do it next year.

P.S. - I can't wait to start half marathon training again.