#TBT: Pink Ribbon 5K Recap

I apologize for the lack of any race recaps lately. I've run 4 races since May and desperately need to catch up, so I thought it would be a great idea to post some of them as a "Throwback Thursday" type post. Sadly, I've had this post typed out for over a month, and simply forgot to publish it. I know I focus mainly on my running and congenital heart condition, but I am considering expanding more on my daily life, and maybe give you a sense of why I've slacked off on posting lately.

Sunday, May 8th, I ran the Pink Ribbon 5K with my mom at Genesee Valley Park. It was also Mother's day so it was nice to be able to spend the entire day with my mom. This race is held every year on Mother's Day and the funds raised go to the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester (BCCR). The event offers a 5K run and a walk to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. The 5K run is a women's only event (of any age, so children may also run), and the walk welcomes both men and women. I had run to pick up our race packets the day before the race so we wouldn't have to rush the morning of the race to get down to the park and pick everything up.

(I really liked the bibs and shirts!)

The race was set to start at 9 am. Mom and I still left my house pretty early because I wasn't sure if the parking lots by Strong would actually be open for participants to park in. They always had been for the Stroll, but that was also an event for the Medical Center, so it made sense. I told mom if the lots weren't open, we would park where I park for work and walk over. Thankfully, the lots were open, so we parked and just hung out in the car for a little while. It was a beautiful sunny day, but there was definitely a chill in the air.

Once it got closer to 9, we walked over to park and down to the start. We stood in the sun for a few minutes and of course, snapped a pre-race picture.

They made an announcement (which I unfortunately could not hear) and then they sent us off. The course itself was the same as the Stroll for Strong 5K, so mom and I used it as a "test run" for the Stroll coming up in June.

The course has you run down Moore road, down to Hawthorn drive where you loop around through the parking lot and around the kickball fields onto Red Creek Path where we run back onto Hawthorne Drive across the expressway and back onto Moore Road. On Moore road, the course takes you down towards Elmwood Ave, but has you turn right up towards strong onto Intercampus Drive. Once on Intercampus drive, we ran back towards the canal where the parking lot/sidewalk meets up with the canal path. Runners turn right onto the canal path where they stay until they cross the finish line back in Genesee Valley Park.

(Course map)

Mom and I stayed together for most of the race, then when there was about 400 meters left, I took off towards to finish. I believe I finished the race in 39:25. My goal was the finish in under 40 minutes, so I was happy. Mom finished just a minute or so behind me.

Mom and I grabbed a water and walked back towards to pavilion. There wasn't much else going on in the park, so we decided to head out. We went to grab a breakfast sandwich to refuel before heading home to get cleaned up to spend the rest of Mother's day with my grandparents.

QOTD: This is the first time I've run this race. It sounds like a great Mother's Day tradition. Do you have any Mother's Day traditions?