I ran in the John Yelenic Memorial Day 5K in Blairsville. My aunt and uncle were doing it too, and it's been awhile since I ran a race with them. I was anxious to show them that my times have improved.

The race started at 8am. It was about 70 degrees, with just a touch of humidity. PERFECT race weather, in my opinion. I started in the middle of the pack, which I was kicking myself for later because I got stuck behind a guy with someone on both sides and I really wanted to be going faster. I ended up dropping back and circling around to pass them.

I started off at a pretty good pace and ran all the hills (Western PA is INSANE for hills, so I am getting used to them). I kept thinking that my aunt was probably RIGHT behind me and I really wanted to beat her, so that kept me going.

It was pretty much a giant circle through the town, with the finish line being about .2 miles beyond the start. There was one water station, but I just took a sip and kept going. There was one girl there that I see at a lot of races and I know she is in my age division. She did end up passing me at mile 2 and I just could not catch up. Frustrating but I knew I was running the best race I could.

I ended up finishing with a time of 24:44! This is over 2 minutes faster than my old PR. I can't believe it! I placed third in my age division, which was just a certificate, but it still felt great to hear my name being called. Oh, and I did end up beating my aunt by about a minute.