Freedom Run – Race Recap

I’m finally getting around to writing a race recap on the race my sister and I did on the 4th of July.

The 12th annual Freedom Run started at Clear Lake Park in Waseca. It is a 5 mile run that benefits the area lakes and restoration of them. There were about 200 people that did the race, so the start was really low-key. Kristy and I actually ran from my parent’s house in the country to the start of the race, which was about 3 miles. When we got to the start, we registered and paid the $15 registration fee. This has got to be the cheapest race ever!

Kristy’s boyfriend, Nick, also ran the race. Aren’t they a cute couple?

I spent about 30 minutes warming up before we had to line up for the race.

Kristy and I planned to run the race together. I had a tempo workout on the schedule, so I suggested averaging 6:30 minute miles. We stuck together the whole way and kept some pretty even splits. I felt really good throughout the race and even talked to Kristy periodically. (Something I never do because I want to conserve as much energy as possible!) I talked about our pace and how my GPS wasn’t picking up a good signal, pointed out the pelicans on the lake, offered encouragement to my sister when she was struggling a little, and told her that we had to beat certain people. After a while, she said, “Shhh. Be quiet.” Ha! I guess she didn’t like all of my talking.

We had a pretty good inkling we’d be able to finish first for the women based on the previous year’s results. And we pinky swore we would tie when we crossed the finish line, which how we finished: tie for 1st place for the women and 5th place overall with a time of 32:35.

The online results say Kristy finished one minute slower and was 7th place, which is a bummer, but as this picture shows, we were neck-and-neck as we come to the finish.

My mom and Cullen were there right at the end to cheer for us.

After we crossed the finish line, we backtracked and ran the last mile with Nick. He cut over 5 minutes off his time from last year!