Zombifying my run

So at work yesterday, this happened.

A spontaneous 5K!

I just found out about this race Sunday night. This is going to be awesome!

1. I get to run a race! (Always exciting)
2. I get to dress up like a zombie! (Super exciting, but I may not be able to do it. I haven't prepared zombie stuff yet because I just signed up)
3. I get to do a flash mob thriller at the finish line. (Umm, who doesn't want to do the thriller at the end of an awesome race?)

And now at a 5K

All in all, this race is going to be a fun one. Of course, I won't be able to set a PR or anything. Why can't I PR all the time? But I just want to run a race in my new city and have fun. Also, it's this Friday night, so after Thriller'ing, if I so felt inclined, I could move over the run party to the bars.

I also managed to convince a few of my coworkers to consider signing up. #winning!

On a slightly different note, this also happened yesterday.

Boom! 

I'm just chalking up this run as a tempo run. Notice how I held about a 8:45/mile pace the first three miles? I kicked it up for the last mile and cooled down with the fourth. There's no warm up because it wasn't a planned tempo. But I feel like that still counts.

I guess what I should confess is that the weather was unusually cool and not humid yesterday, so the faster paces were doable. Fact: I even considered wearing long pants and sleeves to run, because it was that cold. But I didn't,so that I would remember what cold felt like. 

After the amazing run, I spent the rest of the day trying out a new class at the gym, zumba fusion. Awesome! I also went to a dance studio after that to learn the moves to the flash mob Thriller. 

To top it all off, I went to Starbucks with a coworker and tried out their Green Tea Latte. Now, I have a venti cup of it next to me in the office. All in all, yesterday was a great day! Here's to hoping that today is just as good. 

Another zombie graph humor for your pleasure

Do you guys have any fun races coming up? How do you determine your pace for a 5K? I usually run full out for the first mile and then slowly deteriorate, which I realize is not the way to do things.