Yesterday I wanted to get the endorphins flowing, and push it hard on the run.

We're talking puke threshold levels, when your lungs are burning and you feel like you're going to collapse and that your heart might just about pound out of your chest.

I've been lazy on the running front this summer and it's been far too long since I have truly pushed myself.

So I decided to run. Fast.

I took off at a sprint, but reigned it in a little bit once I hit the first quarter mile. I didn't want to be completely gassed at mile 2.5.

I pushed hard through the uphills and the downhills.

I glanced down at Garmin as I flew down one of the hills and saw I was flirting with a 7:30 minute mile pace. When I was on flats, I was holding a steady 8:30 and on uphills I was anywhere from 9:00 to 9:30 depending on the length and steepness of the hill.

My lungs were screaming at me during the last half mile (which was of course all uphill). I was sucking wind and could feel the bile in my stomach churning. Yes, I had reached the puke threshold.

I kicked hard around the final turn, breathing deeply, sprinting with everything my legs had left.

I crossed the imaginary finish line, doubled over, hands on knees, sucking wind and forcing the bile back down.

Don't worry I didn't actually puke.

I took a second to catch my breath before looking at Garmin again to see my final time:

26:56, an 8:41/mile average.

Hands down my fastest 5K ever.

I didn't know I had it in me to go that fast. And all it took was me setting my mind to it.

I said I was going to run fast, to push hard, and I did.

After running Sunday's race, I am completely annoyed with the 5K.

I like the fact that a 5K is an easy distance to run that requires absolutely zero training at this point in my running. I can pretty much register the day before, show up not fueled properly and know I will at least be able to cross the finish line. It doesn't pose the challenge that any other distance poses. The only challenge left in the 5K for me is improving my time.

What I hate about the 5K is that it brings out all amateurs who know absolutely nothing about race courtesy. Like in this Sunday's race, the BF and I lined up in the middle of the pack of people with timing chips on their shoes. For some reason this year, the idiotic race directors decided it would be smart to have the timed runners and the untimed runners start at the same time.

So we lined up, the gun went off...and no one moved. Finally there was some shuffling. Then we crossed the start line and there was still some shuffling and very little running. When I finally got my bearings and wasn't about to trip over someone's feet, I noticed tons of people walking from the get go and people without timing chips who had started in the front of the pack.

I hate people who don't follow common race courtesy and while I know this happens in longer races, it always seems to be the worst in 5Ks. If you're going to walk the whole race, start at the back of the pack. If you're not a timed person, start behind the people who paid extra money to be timed. If you're the race director, go back to what you did last year -- having the timed runners start 15 minutes before the untimed runners.

Chances are, the people who paid extra for timing are a little more serious, more prepared, know how to line themselves up at a start line and don't want to deal with the jostling and dodging around people who line up in the wrong place.

I think this mostly happens in the 5K because it's a lot of people's first experience with racing because it's an easy and manageable first distance. I don't mean to turn people off of running or to sound like a running snob. I just think people need to be more aware of common race courtesy. Running should be fun for everyone participating. If people line up where they are supposed to, there's such a better chance of that happening.

So for now, I'm kind of over the 5K. That's not to say I'll never run one again. I probably will. In fact, I may be running one next month. But it will be much smaller than Sunday's. Otherwise, I'll stick to 8Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, etc, races that actually require some level of training and probably cull out the amateurs.

"There's an old saying, 'Got more guts than brains.'"

That's what some older fellow said to me after I finished my 5K on Saturday morning and was limping back to my car. He asked me if I started that way or ended that way. I told him I was checking to see how my knee was doing. That's when he told me about the old saying.

My knee was not in a happy place after the race or for much of the rest of the day Saturday, but I think I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's backtrack to the actual race.

It was the race that was the closest to my house in a long time and it started at 10 a.m. so I got to sleep in a little bit before it actually started. Left the house by nine, got to the park by 9:30. Got my bib (No. 302) and hit the porta-potty. BF hung out with me before the race started. There were a ton of people there and it was a bright sunny day. Temps in the 40's. Beautiful running weather.

The race directors got everyone lined up and then we were off. My knee was taped up, but it started hurting right away. Not too bad, but I could feel it talking to me. I kept going though and I hit the first mile at 9:04ish. The first mile was a lot of downhill though.

I grabbed some water from the stop at mile 1.5. I kept moving and hit mile 2 around 18:34. By this point my knee was feeling a little bit better, but then I hit an uphill toward the end of the race and my knee started hurting a bunch. The finish was only a little bit further and I managed to cross the finish line in 29:15 on my watch, 29:18:09 by the official clock.

I also ran this race as part of the Freakishly Flexible 5K dedicated to NonRunner Nancy!

After the race, I grabbed some Gatorade, and a cookie and a package of strawberry shot blocks. I looked for Merry Mishaps at the food table because she told me that's where she was volunteering, but I couldn't find her. Bummer.

My knee really started hurting after I stopped running, like extreme pain walking back to the car. Boyfriend offered to drive back home so I could rest my leg. I iced it and rested for the rest of the day Saturday. By yesterday it was feeling a little better. Today it seems to be almost back to normal, but I'm not sure what to do now. I guess just more resting for now.

Happy early Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all have plans for a fun weekend (whether it involves V-day or not!)

I'm just dropping in for a quick post to update you on the knee situation and tomorrow's Valentine's Day 5K.

The knee has been on again off again with how much it hurts or doesn't hurt. Going down steps still nags at it, but for the most part it's OK otherwise. So I'm going to tape it up and give the race a go. If I have to walk, I have to walk.

Also want to give a big shout out to Carolina John who is running his first marathon this weekend. Stop by his blog and send him and his wife lots of good luck for their first big race!

As for my other weekend plans:

My friend's birthday is tonight so we're hitting up Hard Rock Cafe in Baltimore for dinner and drinks. (Just dinner for me.)

Tomorrow's my race and then no real V-day plans of note.

And Sunday and Monday will be chill out days. Man I love working for the government and getting the holidays off! Hope you all have an awesome weekend! Catch ya on the flipside!

Man I feel like I haven't had a second to catch my breath since this weekend. I've been filling in for one of my co-workers at work who's out for a family emergency and I've been trying to finish up all of my work that I need to finish by my last day on Friday.

Let me get to the quick stuff. I saw so many hilarious shirts with boob references on them at the race today. I wish I could remember all of them, but two I remember seeing said.

"Running (or maybe racing?) for Someone's Name That I Don't Remember's hooters."

"Men have a breasted interest."

As you know my big goal for this race was to improve on my stubble time for the 5K challenge. Well I certainly was successful.

This morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:45 a.m. to get ready for the race. I was tired and didn't really want to get out of bed, but I was also really looking forward to the race. So I took one look at my clothes, knee tape, sneakers and watch laid out neatly on the floor and that was about all the extra motivation I needed.

I'm spending the weekend in Maryland again (shocker, I know) and I packed a pair of running shorts along with a short sleeve and long sleeve running top because I knew it had the potential to be chilly.

Chilly would be an understatement. It was 45 degrees when I got to the start. My legs were numb in about 10 minutes of waiting for my friends. I was really wishing I had packed my running tights. I was fine once the race started though. But waiting at the beginning and the end was definitely cold.

I met up with my friends (Sam, Amy, Emily, Laurie, Randyl and Chris) who were all doing the race too. Chris ran the timed race (and kicked butt with a time of 24:something) with me. Sam and Amy ran the untimed race and Emily Laurie and Randyl walked.

I've got to give a HUGE shout out to Sam and Amy for running their very first race and finishing in about 31:08! How awesome is that! They both said they had a really good time too!

As for my time: 28:29.28. (That's by my watch, official time hasn't been posted yet) WHOOO HOOO! Check it out that's more than two minutes faster than my stubble time.

I smashed my previous PR.

I hit mile one around 9:02, but didn't feel like I was overextending myself so I tried to keep a similar pace in mile two. I did well, hitting that one around 18:20ish if I remember correctly.

The course was the exact same as last year so I think it helped that I knew when to speed it up and what was coming next. It's a hilly course with lots and ups and downs, but nothing was really unexpected.

I was hurting by the last couple tenths of the race though. I had a side stitch and I could feel that my breathing was off, but I forced myself to push it hard to the finish line. I didn't want to slack off at the end of the race. I almost couldn't believe it when I looked at my watch afterward.

Needless to say I am completely psyched about my time. I have pictures, but don't have camera connecting cord with me in Maryland. So those and pics from my cousin's wedding are still to come.

I have every intention of spending the rest of my Sunday curled up on the sofa watching football!

Good luck to everyone else who was racing this weekend. Can't wait for your reports.

After not a ton of running this week and mostly cycling, I decided I wanted to do a practice 5K tonight to make sure I'm ready for my upcoming race. I didn't have a course completely mapped out before hand so I ended up running 3.2 instead of 3.1 and clocked a time of 31:04.

That's slower than my stubble time, which makes me think maybe my stubble time course was shorter than a true 3.1 because seriously I was booking it tonight. I finished my first mile in a little over 9 minutes and then the second around 18:30ish.

That's like lightening for me.

I know I did definitely slow down in the 3rd mile because I could feel my calves tightening and going up one of the hills on my course I had to start walking so obviously I lost some time there.

Oh well, it's not a big deal. I'm usually not that worried about my times, I just thought it was a little strange because I was working hard tonight and I don't remember pushing that hard in my stubble time race.

Anyway, the whole point of tonight's run was to make sure I am ready for Sunday's race. I think it proved I am.

I taped my knee as a precaution because I plan to do that in the race and everything felt good there. I wore an outfit very similar to the one I will be wearing on race day to make sure all the kinks are worked out with that and everything was comfortable. I think you're allowed to run this race with an iPod and I plan to.

I plan to pack a loaf of bread and peanut butter so I can have toast with PB as my morning energy because I guarantee the place I'm staying this weekend won't have whole wheat bread. Hell they might not even have a toaster, I could just be eating bread with PB.

I'm starting to feel the nerves about this race already and I think it's because I haven't raced in such a long time and it's my first race coming back from my knee issues this summer. Also, I know a lot of friends are going to be either running with me or there to watch, which isn't something I'm really used to. Plus I'll be staying not at my house, driving to the race without my mom (who usually runs things with me) and having no one to sympathize with my night before the race nervous rituals of laying out all my stuff and making sure everything is ready, etc. etc.

I must keep telling myself that I just need to have fun and not worry about my times...but it's so hard not to focus on them!