3rd race of 2013 (March's, it's a late post--eeek)

I cannot believe I neglected to write about my third month, third event of 2013! I must do this before I can write about the April event!  

I was trying to figure out what to do. I needed a 5K for March for this twelve months of runs to continue  We had late month snow that put the dampers on going to visit dad and doing a 5K near him.  (I love to drive in snow, don't really have a problem with it, but I didn't want to drive back in the dark in snow when the last time the weather folks were off with us getting a "trace" and we wound up with seven inches instead!)

Our "trace" of snow, ha ha ha ha

I was looking on Get Me Registered and Running in the USA websites looking for a local 5K to do and found a 5K in a town about an hour away.  The fundraising purpose of the event was to raise funds for a youth group to go to on a missionary trip to help people with their homes. Before the race started, they raised enough from this year's race to do the trip they planned to do in Puerto Rico and then do a trip to Michigan as well!  

Online registration was, of course, closed already and there was no information on their website as to how much the race cost, so I called.  I have never heard of this a staggered race entry before.  I know most places do an online registration cost and day of registration cost. I have never heard of a place having a "pickup packet day /in person registration price" with a "day of event registration price" being even more.  When I called, I was told if I came to the place on Friday it'd be $35, but day of event it was $40.  EEK.  How was I going to justify spending $40 for an event, driving an hour to get there (and back again) and having already paid $20 for a race I wasn't able to do. . . it was a spendy enough weekend to call it a marathon ;-)  One of my friends and coworker had just returned from a trip and knew from driving through this area that there was no snow or ice on the ground (unless us a bit to the north!).  She was in for the 5K as well YEAH! 

Friday night involved getting the clothing ready, laying out styles, extra shirts and then Saturday dawned early and I headed over to C's house to get her. . . turned the seat warmers in the car and set the station to Sinatra for her enjoyment and off we were. 

We found the running store in a fairly new strip mall with plenty of parking down the way. Inadvertently, I did drive unknowingly on part of the course. It was nice to recognize the finish area when we came around the corner.  Registration was in a running store created by runners. They had a lot of stuff packed into a small store front and it was just the right amount!  So many shoes and socks and CEP compression, as well as women designed clothing for women, and a nice array of hydration and nutrition.  Oh, it was so overwhelming early on in the morning (chuckle chuckle). We were also lucky enough to get shirts on race day--they weren't guaranteed for us and only a few sizes were left.  

Songs were sung, thank yous said and we were off on the 5K.  Somehow I thought C got ahead of me and so I spent the race thinking "I need to catch her".  I started off too fast, as always it seems in short races, and had to take some walking breaks.  Then there was the second or so corner to round with a mom holding two five year olds' hands. No problem with that--quite nice to see families and kids getting out for these events.  Instead, the problem was with the woman between that group and myself who kept diving to the left and then the right and then the left and then the right  like she was magically going to fly over the trio and be able to 'cut the corner'. It would have been funny to watch, had I not been so worried about trampling her.  Instead, I put on a burst of energy and sped past the jazzercising runner.  

source

The scenery was quite a mix--business to residential to a pond and then along a highway with police protection and back onto a curvy residential street before we turned onto a business road again. I took a small walk break here up the incline and then looked behind me and saw more people catching, so I took off around the corner and realized we were just a few blocks from the finish  which actually was a left turn into the parking lot and then an incline to the finish line.  No sooner had I finished with huffing and puffing finesse than I looked around for C. She came up and found me. I asked, "how long ago did you finish?" and she had just finished. She thought I was in front and I laughed because I thought she was in front and I kept pushing myself to beat her and vice versa!  

Seriously one of the cookies at this 5k. . .
perhaps the key is doing a race before Easter? Lots of Easter themed decorated cookies!

After finding some nourishment (a huge smorgasbord with bananas, breakfast bars and dozens and dozens of cookies,  we went shopping. . . what else were we to do?  

We both got new headbands and I acquired a new iFitness hydration pack which has been improved with collapsable water bottle cages (so you run with it as a belt to hold things in the pouch instead of just hydration), a larger cell phone pouch and silicone grips on the back of the front hip sections so it has less desire to slip around on slippery spandex!   There were several other beauties they had in the store to which I had to say 'not just yet'.  The only sad part was that we apparently spent so much time IN the store that we missed out on the door prizes.