28:23

You know what’s kinda awesome? Getting a PR in a 5K.

Ok, to be fair, the only other 5K I ever ran was six years ago in October in Milwaukee, but nonetheless, it feels pretty damn good to get a PR. I beat my old time by just over two minutes (only took me 6 years, ha!) and managed to break 30 minutes, clocking in at 28:23 (the unofficial time according to my handy-dandy watch). I ran with some folks from the theater to support an organization that we work with throughout the year and it was so nice to see a great turnout from supporters and our staff! We were decked out in our fancy mustaches and monocles t-shirts too.

It was a lovely day for a 5K: blue skies, sunny, and warm. It was on a nice path through a beautiful wooded area on the Educational Testing Services campus here in Princeton; a little hilly, but it was manageable. Everything was going swimmingly until that last half mile when my stuffy nose and head started to catch up with me (Thanks, New Jersey, I’ve never had allergies in my entire life and I’m pretty sure you’ve given them to me. Bastard.) as I was going through the last set of little hills. What. A. KILLER. But I kicked up that last hill and made sure to finish strong—just like my high school track coaches taught me—and I even gave the photographer a double thumbs up and a big smile as I ran across the finish line.

A co-worker and I started training for this in March—in the midst of subscription renewals, multiple opening nights and events, and our annual gala benefit, which was all a little nuts and trying at times, but we did it—using this Couch to 5K app. I can’t say enough about it. It’s so methodical and easy to follow, I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking to get into running. Seriously. You’ll be running 3 miles like it’s nothing in a matter of weeks. Now the task is to keep up with the running since we’ve come this far. Thank goodness Princeton is a fairly running-friendly town.

And, for the record, I ran the entire thing while rocking my aqua shades. Here are some of the post-race highlights from this morning:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.