Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Hot Chocolate Run

One of my best friends in the whole wide world, Jen started her own blog this week.  After many months of making fun of those who blog.  Then she has the guts to email me and call me out for not posting in a while.  So, Jen...this blog's for you - literally.

The back story: around Thanksgiving sometime, Jen texted me and said she wanted to do a 5K with me.  Awesome! I replied (as this is my most used word, followed by bummer).  I proposed the Hot Chocolate 5K on January 15.  We agreed this would be awesome because: 1. we had enough time to train. 2. we could still get the early bird registration fee 3. you got free hot chocolate at the end AND 4. the shirts were long sleeved.  WIN all the way around!

Jen and I live in the small metroplex area but it might as well be a million miles apart for as often as we see each other.  So, we would not be training together.

In December, we had our annual girls dinner.  That sounds really fancy but it's me, Jen and Diana eating, griping and gossiping for a minimum of four hours.  At our dinner Jen mentions that she wouldn't be running - she'll be walking really fast.  WHAT?!?  OK, whatever ;)

Fast forward to race day >>>>>> it's freezing and raining slightly.  I haven't been training for a variety of reasons (actually 3 reasons - laziness, coldness and illness).  And I was on day 6 of what would become a 9 day headache.  Parking was a bear.  Jen left her race number in the car and had to go back for it.  Here's a picture of us before the race.

We had a great start.  Jen did start out running.  She did great.  When she started walking, I was still able to run because she's so much taller than me.  After a little bit, a decided to push myself and took off.

I made my usual raceday mistakes.  I started too fast.  I was passing people left and right.  At mile 3 I wanted to walk.  But I didn't, I ran.  Really, really slowly.  But I ran the whole way.  My time was my slowest time yet (34:59) but not too bad considering the weather, my head and the lack of training.  I'll also mention that an extremely buff and awesome looking lady finished the 10K ahead of me.  I was in awe.  Seriously!



After the race, we got our hot chocolate mug and went inside to partake of the chocolatey goodness.  I guess I misread the race info because I thought we would be sampling all kinds of hot chocolate.  I was wrong.  It was regular mix it yourself hot chocolate.  But there were colored marshmallows.  And the hot chocolate was warm and delicious.  We cruised around the vendors and pretended they were going to call our name for awards. 

I had a great time, as I do every time I'm with Jen.  And we are signed up for the Mardi Gras 5K in March. Stay tuned....I'm planning on training for that one.

Jen would like me to mention that she is NOT, in fact, pregnant.  She is simply wearing a large sweatshirt.