Daytona 5K and a morning out with the girls!

The morning started 15 minutes earlier than planned. Kevin woke me up worried I forgot to set my alarm. I got around, got dressed, called Sueann and woke her up. Suezette called and I headed out to get Sueann. We met up at a gas station before we got to the race track. We head over to the track and sit in traffic for about 5 minutes until I realized these were people going into the infield for the Rolex 24. I pull out of the line and Suezette followed and went up and pulled through a parking lot to get into the unused lane that would take us to the lot we needed to go to for parking. We get situated then head into the track to catch the tram to the starting area. We pick up our chips and meet up with my friend Rich who was volunteering at the race. We are going to the line up when we found fellow runner Zik and said hello and caught up some. The Daytona 5 in 2009 is when we first met Zik and we have run a couple of races since with him! The gun is about to go off so Zik heads off closer to the front and we sit and chat until they sing the national anthem and then give the GO! The worst part of this race is the start, all these runners are trying to squeeze through this little start gate. There is NO mat at the start so it's a race you know your Garmin will be the official time for you. We head out and Suezette and I pull a little ahead of Sueann, then Suezette pulls way ahead of me. I'm still sick and not pushing a thing so I stay right where I am. I went into this race as a NO PR race and I was only there for a good run and good times with friends considering I was just getting over the flu and an upper repiratory infection! We turn the first corner before heading on to the track and over the big press box on the speedway is a bright, full rainbow. I considered running up to Suezette or stopping to wait for Sueann to point it out and figure with all the people who stopped to take pictures, they'd notice. It was beautiful! I ran on. When we met up with the walkers that were just walking the 2 mile loop of the track, it was bad, I lost time, had to slow down as they were bunched up and the runners on the left were running about 3 abreast, some would stop for walk breaks. I was glad when I finally jumped through them all and got ahead of the walkers and settled back into my pace. I hit mile 2 and I'm finally starting to feel comfortable (minus my lungs) and talked briefly to a couple whose 6 year old was running and running fast for her little legs! I passed them and then a few minutes later, that little girl went flying by with daddy who had finished much earlier and run back for her and her mom. She ran strong all the way to the finish!!! I got beat by a 6 year old!!!! I picked it up and saw Suezette, waved for a pic and picked up some more into a dead sprint for finish. I finished Garmin time in 33:41. No CR or PR but a nice almost easy run. I coughed a bit, got some water and inhaled 2 glasses! Sueann was coming in as I was getting my water, I knew she'd PRed but not by how much. Suezette came back and joined us and she had just barely missed a PR, she had an incident at a water stop with unexpected gatorade. I was 2 and 1/2 minutes slower than my CR for Daytona. We found my friend Rich and got my camera and said our goodbyes to him as we head toward the finish line on the race track for some post race pictures.

We head out to the cars and take Suezette's to Sueann's office before heading to Target to change LOL (no where else to change.) We went to breakfast at Monterey Grill and had omelets and potatoes. We then shopped for a bit then went to lunch at the Ocean Deck. We never thought to get pictures through the morning. When we left lunch it was raining, it had held out until the end of our day out. We dropped Suezette back at her car and headed out. My day was far from over. I dropped Sueann off and headed home to get some clamps for my husband and dropped them off to him at his parent's house and picked up Cody who had been running a 102.8 fever and took him to urgent care, Kevin wasn't feeling good so no Couch 2 5K for him. I decided since I was still really congested to see the doc too. Cody had an ear infection and I have the start of a sinus infection, antibiotics all around! Cody and I leave Urgent Care and head back into town when Kevin called needing brackets from Home Depot. We run to Home Depot, take the brackets to him, then head to the store for groceries and free antibiotics. I've been visiting the store regularly to get more chocolate vitatops, but yet again, sold out!!!! I called Sueann to see if she was going by the other Publix, she was so I asked her to get me some if they had them. She did! She dropped by after the store, all I had managed to do was put up groceries and get a 15 minute hot bath and she called that she was just up the road. I grabbed a banana nut vitatop for her to try and met her outside. We planned to get together this morning for a 12 mile run. I headed in and Kevin and I caught up on 24 and had a bite to eat and then I was shot and headed to bed where I slept fitfully.

Sueann and I have delayed our 12 miler until 8ish. The high today only supposed to reach 61 makes that possible. Hopefully Kevin is OK with it. As he is headed back to his parents to work on the train table for Cody. Well, I think I have made this long enough and I'd like to rest some more before heading out to run 12 miles, so off I go for now!

Next race up is Healthy Heart 10K!  Our first anniversary of our first 10K!