Wednesday, December 6, 2017

2017 St. Nick Fun Run 5K Recap!

This year's shirt - long sleeved cotton, which is perfect for our mild December weather!

On Saturday, I ran the St. Nick 5K Fun Run for the third time; our entire band of Renegades showed up to run it, which was just so much fun.  Most of us dressed up in Christmas attire of some sort - I wore my favorite Buddy the Elf shirt along with my crazy socks that I first wore in December 2010 when I ran an informal jingle bell run along with my USAFit group, and a crazy headband that I've had for several years and is so easy to run with, I don't even notice it.  We all gathered for a group picture before the race:
From left:  Karen, Julia (kneeling), Diane, Logan, Brian, Cary, Andi, me, Gammy Cindy, CC, Loretta, and Mason.
Jeff's back is starting to feel a little better but he wasn't up to running yet.  He wore his race shirt and brought his bib so he could indulge in the cookies afterward, though.

Except for Logan and his Gammy, who were walking the 5K, I was the only person in our group running the 5K - everyone else signed up for the 10K, which is just another loop of the 5K route.  I learned my lesson about doing that the first time I ran this race - never sign up for the longer distance when it's a small race.  There were only 57 people finishers for the 10K, as opposed to 186 for the 5K.  This year they also had a Merry Mile, so families with very young children could easily participate.
With Jeff not running, I had a photographer once again!  Here's the starting line; please note the eager group of young boys ready to blast off.  We were somewhere toward the back.

I didn't have any grand plans for this race - it was warming up quickly right before the 8:00 am start time, the sun was out, and I was wearing a double layer of shirts, which seemed like a good idea when I was getting dressed a couple of hours earlier.  The route goes through the historic district of homes and while it's really interesting to see all the cute houses, the roads are a little rough, so Diane and I just did our normal 1:30/45 intervals and tried to stay out of dips and cracks in the road.

I definitely did not feel like I did when I ran 9 miles the previous week - this race was more of a challenge than I would have liked.  Logically, I know it was due to being overdressed for the temperature, along with running with the sun out - normally we are finished, or just about finished, before this race started.  Funny thing was that once I finished and checked my splits, I saw that our first mile was just 10 seconds slower than our first mile at the Turkey Trot - and we ran that entire mile without stopping!  So I guess we were moving pretty fast during our run intervals for this race.

I was happy when we finished the first loop and I got to make that turn toward the finish line:
Hey, there's my personal photographer! 

I crossed the finish line, got a bottle of water, and went out to find Jeff and Jimmy, who were sitting at the last bend before the finish line.
 
The route - run once for 5K, twice for 10K!

This race has a lot of turns, and being that we were in an unfamiliar area, Diane and I had no good bearing as to where we were.  I mean, there were other runners around us, and there were volunteers directing everyone at specific turns, but she was worried about really getting lost on her second lap (for the 10K), so I suggested she add me to her Find Friends app so I could help out if she really did get lost.  Well, shortly after I finished, my phone rang - it was Diane.  Crap!  That was too soon for her to get lost; I hoped nothing had happened.  I answered, but she didn't respond; I realized she'd pocket-dialed me.  Then my phone rang again, and again, and again.  Each time I was afraid to just hit "decline" on the call in case she really was calling, but it was comical.  Finally Jimmy suggested I text her and tell her what was happening, and the calls eventually stopped, but it was pretty funny.  I did end up tracking her, which was nice as we could see when she was close to finishing, so I was able to get an action shot of her crossing the finish line:
Hair flying, coming in for the finish!

Here are some more pictures of most of our crew:
Andi coming round her first loop.
Cary, CC, and Mason on their first loop.
 Loretta, first loop.
Gammy Cindy and Logan, racking up the second 5K of his life!
Karen coming in for the finish!  She missed getting an age group award by 17 seconds, dang it!
Brian - this is why I hate him - look at that stride!  I really don't hate him, but does he have to make running look so easy?
Why yes, that would be Brian in first place for his age group.  He also finished 6th overall for the 10K.  Not too shabby for a new dad!
After the race, we had cookies from Blue Baker - and then we went to Blue Baker for breakfast.  I don't think any of us ended up buying additional pastries, though - we kind of did it backward that morning.  
 Jimmymeow, wearing his perfect shirt - a cool Christmas cat, and it even snowed when he turned at an angle!
Mason wearing his gloves and waving his hands around like he just don't care!  He's an old pro at this running stroller gig - such a good little guy!
Old blue eyes himself, Logan - he's recently figured out how to get his thumb in his mouth, and was so cute the way he was holding it there with his other hand.

We were just getting ready to leave when one of the race organizers came up to me and handed over a tin of Harry & David salted caramel pretzel bark - she said we won the prize for having so many people from our group who dressed up.  We quickly snapped a picture with our Major Award:
Julia (behind Diane, talking to someone), Diane, Cary, me, Karen

...and then we left for breakfast at Blue Baker.  I have more cute baby pictures to show you, but I'll put them in the Friday Mishmash as this post is getting pretty long.  Another St. Nick race is in the books, and as usual, it was a great one!

10 comments:

  1. Racing with your friends looks like so much fun! Love the pics of the babies they are so adorable!

    ReplyDelete
  2. All of these outfits are SO cute and the official race shirt is adorable too!! Great job on the 5K! Sounds like another fun one!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I am loving the race shirt - it's my official shirt of December, LOL.

      Delete
  3. You Renegades know how to do it right. I love that you won a prize for your costumes!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, and we didn't even plan it! Nor did they advertise that there would be prizes. :)

      Delete
  4. That just sounds like a darn fun day. I bet those pretzel snacks are tasty.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys always have so much fun! That's so funny that Diane's phone kept dialing you! I had a big phone glitch during one of my Chicago Marathons and I've learned to put it on airplane mode during a race. I lost a lot of time trying to figure out what was going on with it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love all your fun outfits - how cool that you were recognized for it.

    LOL at Diane's phone calling you over and over. I am glad she was okay, ha ha.

    And WTG on doing so well despite the later start time. Woo hoo!

    ReplyDelete

Comments are now moderated to prevent spammers from leaving, well, spam - but rest assured that as soon as I read a real comment, I will publish it. So please, comment away, even though the blog is officially closed. Thanks!