Will Run for Chocolate

Yesterday I ran in the first annual Hot Chocolate 5k/15 K. My friend K had mentioned the race to me a few weeks ago because they were offering GREAT goody bags. The first 1,000 (or so) runners got fleece jackets. I didn't sign up in time to get a fleece (which is okay, because they were pretty ugly). But I did get a kick-ass hat, a T-shirt that says "Will run for chocolate" (though I got a large for some idiotic reason, and it's like a dress on me), and a string backpack. Best giveaways EVER.

Cool gear aside, I wasn't terribly excited about this race. I've been racing a lot lately--to pretty disappointing results. In the month of September, I raced twice. And I raced once more in November. The pressure of trying so hard to break 30 was starting to get to me. Racing was starting to feel like a chore. I was definitely missing out on the kick that got me started on all this in the first place.

So I headed to the race with low expectations. I realized my ipod was dead (it does this thing lately where I can't get it to shut off, so it had been on ALL night) as I was gathering my stuff. The girls were in a MOOD. And I was still sore from Thursday's speed workout. I definitely didn't feel like running a race. But Dean said that I'd get in the spirit once I got there. And, of course, he was right. Just parking the car and seeing all the other runners doing their prerace things--pinning on numbers and warming up and hanging out--got me in the spirit before I even left the car.

I'd suspect (though I don't know for sure) that all runners have little race-day quirks or routines that they are superstitious about. You know mine--I won't wear the shirt for the race until I've actually completed the race (which means I gave the cool tech shirt we got from the arboretum run that we DNS to Dean since I refuse to wear it). I lay out all my race stuff the night before. Those are the big ones, I guess. But I'm adding another one: From now on, I will not do race-day packet pick-up. I did that for my last two races, and I swear it's bad luck. Plus, it just stresses me out to have to pick up my packet on race day. For this race, there was NO race-day packet pick-up. Logically, you can tell me that this had no effect on my race, but I'll tell you that superstition says otherwise!

When I originally heard about this race, I was excited to run the 15K (a little more than 9 miles). But you all know the (boring) story about my 5K goal, which pretty much explains why I went for that distance instead.

So anyway, on to the race. The 15Kers started ten minutes before us. Even so, the field was *crowded*. As crowded (or maybe even MORE crowded) that the Pumpkins in the Park 5K. I am not sure at what point I became this crazy person that is too fast for the pack--running on the grass and weaving in and out of the huge knots of people in search of a clear path where I could keep my pace. Honestly, this race was more annoying than most, with lots of people just stopping dead in their tracks to walk or not paying attention to the people around them. It was this kind of atmosphere that had me blowing the Pumpkins race a few weeks ago. It's hard work to try to dodge around so many people. Still, it's kind of funny to think about this in comparison with my mentality going into my first race last November (my only goal back then was not to come in last).

Since my Nike+ was dead, I was using Dean's Garmin to keep track of my pace. I seemed to be on target (or just a bit behind) except in places where the crowd got kind of thick. After the first mile marker, the field cleared out a bit, which was nice. I ran the first two miles in 18 minutes. This is somewhat noteworthy because to qualify for the gymnastics team in high school, we were required to be able to run an 8-minute mile. A handful of us couldn't do that, so the qualification was upped to a 9-minute mile, which I also could not do. To me, it seems pretty cool that I can do something now, at age 33, that I couldn't do then, at age 15.

I know I'm turning what should be a very short story into a very long one. Suffice to say that I crossed the finish line at 28:52 on the Garmin. Actual chip time? 28 minutes, 38 seconds. That's right: I finally DID it! Not only did I break 30, I do believe I smashed it into pieces. I felt like a rockstar for the rest of the day.

I suppose it's worth noting that the Garmin only recorded the course distance as 3 miles flat. I've obsessed about that a bit because it's possible the course was short (although it's worth noting that even if the course WAS short, I'd still have broken 30 in 3.1, just not by as much). But, you know, whatever. This is the first race I've ever run with the Garmin, so it's hard to say how others might have measured in comparison. I'm going by my official chip time, and Garmin be damned....

Yesterday afternoon, as I waited for the race results to be posted online I thought that it would be cool if I finished in the top 50 for my age group. Then figured that was an impossibility since I've never come close to that before. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever been in the double digits as far as age group ranking goes. But this time, I actually finished 38th out of 138 women in my age group. Which seems pretty good. It's not first, but I'm never going to come in first. Those women are running 6-minute miles. So for now, I'm going to take my 28:38 and my 38th-place finish and feel damn good about it.

The whole premise for the race was chocolate. Sweet, sweet reward. The postrace party included hot chocolate--not to mention graham crackers, marshmallows, and bananas, all of which could be dipped in chocolate fountains. Plus, they had tons of chocolate candy out for the taking. I brought home a huge bag of it. Best race ever. I'm definitely running this one again next year.