Well guys its official I’m back in race mode.
I got a taste this weekend and I’m stoked for my next race Jan 1st!
This weekend I ran my first race back with my friends M and S. Those two are fun and all but my favorite part was it was my first race WITH Apple! This 5k allows strollers! The 4 of us had an Alice in Wonderland theme, I was Alice, Apple was the white rabbit, M was the Cheshire Cat (she had purple on but it was cold) and S was the queen of hearts!
So first off the good, I love this race its just a fun run for me (meaning I’m not concerned with time) and it always will be. Why? Because I hope this becomes a tradition for Apple and I. Something we can be look forward to every year, I imagine costume planning, running next year w/o the car seat and the first year she will be able to run/walk/ride in the stroller, then first year without the stroller….oh dear now I’m crying.
Team Ortho runs a very organized race, they recognized that this one was going to be bigger than their venue allowed so they moved it. For the most part this was fine. It was still crazy, still TONS of people but the location had plenty of parking and was well layed out. The start went SOOO MUCH faster than last year and that was with me towards the back with my stroller.
The Bad, Since they moved the 5k to the same start/finish as the 1/2 Marathon those poor guys had to deal with the craziness of the finish line with a heard of 5k finishers. If I was them (trying to run for time) I would have been mad. The 5k started 1 hour after the 1/2 so the first few finishers would have been fine but anyone who finished I would say 1 hour and 30 min or after would have had to deal with chaos. They tried to keep the right side open for the 1/2 marathoners but it didnt’ work. I do understand it was a last minute change but I hope they figure that one out next year.
Our Times: My time was 42:00
We all started out together and its a slow beginning in the mass crowd. We started at a good Jog for the first 3/4 mile and then we walked for 1/4 mile. After that I honestly stopped paying attention we were just enjoying it. Then Apple got fussy (I think we were moving to slow for her) S had already gone ahead so I broke away for the last 3/4 mile and ran it as best I could weaving around people with a stroller. S found us (she stopped for a while because well she was sick all week and deserved to) So we finished together around 42:00 and then I left Apple with her since she was in a much better mood once I started running, and went back to find M. I’m proud to say I found her running! She picked up speed not long after I ditched her and ran the whole rest of the race!! M finished in 43:29!!