mom's storyMy first trip to Pittsburgh was a really great one. The city was amazing. Reminded me a lot of Little Rock in the way it was so hilly and the steal bridges going across the rivers. Was so beautiful. Wish I would have known the city was so hilly though, I could have spent the week prior doing some extra hill training in the heat. Luckily, my trip was pretty easy and I was able to get a few hours of sleep before the run. I have to admit it is a lot harder working during the week and running on weekends then it was when I was on the road full time. This is an added challenge I am putting on my body with the extra travel and travel on day prior to race. I will keep doing this though as I will not give up on reaching my goal of running in every state and getting a million names added to “The Road.”
When I arrived in Pittsburgh, I meet with the race director for the Brookline Breeze 5k, Debbie. She was very helpful and for the second race in a row, I was allowed to set up a booth to pass out information and collect donations from the runners and spectators. There was a community festival going on along witht the race, so this added to the amount of people at the race site. The runners and spectators were great and we raised a good amount of money and passed out a lot of information to people about our cause. I am always happy when people buy the wristbands, because when they wear them it can only help us in spreading awareness about Optic Nerve Disorders.
As for the race itself, the course was very challenging with the amount of hills in the first mile and a half of the race. Right off the bat there was a quarter mile hill that took up a lot of energy in the heat. While it was only 75 degrees (According to my cell), it was about 85 with the humidity. The second half of the race wasn’t as bad with the hills and allowed
for me to pass a few other runners. Overall, the course was really nice, and ran through a great part of the city. My time was one of my slower ones, 23:47, and I finished 135 overall out of 467 runners. With the heat and the hills and my lack of race prep due to working more, I was pleased with the race and feel that I should have a good week to prep for next weeks half marathon. Thank you to everyone at the race and in the city of Pittsburgh, up next Minneapolis, Minnesota. Check out the week in pictures at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43847&id=172123116132894
