Race Recapping: 15K, 5K, 10 miler

Because of my new bucket list endeavor, I have decided to group the first of the year races together.  They are shorter, less exciting, and quite honestly, the half marathons take up a lot of my energy in writing....but the adventure is so much more fun. Here is how I started off my year in my racing world.

February: The Nashville Hot Chocolate 15k.  I convinced my husband to also sign up, and we had something to look forward to on Valentine's Day. I was battling a head cold that day, so my time was worse than the year before with a 1:56:04 and an overall pace of 12:24. See??

The chill of the weather  +  head cold  = very bad race

The good news?? We got lots of food and hot chocolate at the finish line!

We finished!

Leggings, coat, hat---it was very cold!

March: Originally I had signed up for the Tom King Half Marathon.  From friends I have trained with, I heard it was very nice because of being a flat out-and-back.  Again, my group of friends signed up, and I was very excited about setting a new PR.  But Mother Nature had other plans, and Nashville was hit with a snow and ice storm 10 days before the race.  So they cancelled the half marathon (spots of the course were still iced over), but we were welcome to run the 5k.  They were also going to give us a discount for the 2016 half marathon, but since I was moving that was a moot point for me.

I met The Gang, and Tony and I ran together.  I tried for a PR, but ended up with a 32:57, about 1 minute slower than my PR.  Oh well, on to the next race. 

Tom King 5k--same clothes, different race

March--Part 2: At the end of March, I met The Gang up in my part of the state to run the Ft Campbell USO Ten Miler race. The last 10 miler race I ran was horrible--there was zero crowd support and all of the sponsors had torn down their booths by the time the longer racers had completed the race.  Since the 10 miler was the signature race of the day (there was a shorter 5k also offered), here's hoping this was better supported.

Still cold but at least I could wear a lighter jacket!

We started the race going down a huge hill.  That in itself SHOULD have been exciting. Except this was an out-and-back race, meaning this hill would be waiting for us to climb it uphill just before the finish line. Ugh. Not something to look forward too.  Carolina and I ran together for the first three miles, then she fell back for a bit.  I caught up to Tony, and ran with him until Carolina caught up.  I was feeling particularly good that day, and went on ahead.  There were long stretches of seeing no sectors, just a few runners up head and a few who were playing leap frog with me.   Since my last 10-miler race was over 2 hours (2:03:29), my goal for the day was to come in less than 2 hours.  I made it!!! My final time was 1:57:07, which was REALLY exciting. Until I read my Garmin which showed my total mileage at 9.89 miles. Not quite 10 miles, but I still would have been under 2 hours with the other 0.11 miles.

April--Nothing exciting to report this month. Joel and I ran a 5 mile race with his brother up in Boston. Nothing like hiking three-quarters of a mile to the start line! And since Boston was recovering from the Snow Storm of the Century we were running through snow where it had been plowed---the snow must have been at least 6' tall because it was taller than me! And while I have run 5 miles for training, it was my first 5 mile race. Meaning.....PR! 57:57--next time I'll try to break 55:00.

The 3 Amigos race Boston!