Holiday Race Reports

Because we had such great weather for December my husband and I decided to do a couple last minute races to end the year. First we ran the Frosty 5 Miler in Hudson on Christmas Eve then we ran the Great New Years Eve 5K race on New Years Eve. Below is a quick recap on both races.

Frosty 5 Miler:

The Frosty 5 Miler is put on by my friends at Western Reserve Racing. It takes place in downtown Hudson, which is a really cute area. This was our first time doing the race and I was not sure how challenging it would be. The weather was great a little chilly - in the high 40s/low 50s but warm enough to race in my Pearl Izumi ultra shorts and a tank top so that was great! The first mile was slightly up hill, the mid miles were flatter with some small hills and it seemed like the last mile was the most uphill but maybe I was just tired. I was hoping to break 35 minutes but felt a little sluggish towards the end so I ended up at 35:39 about a 7:08 pace. This was good enough for 2nd of 59 in my AG so it went fairly well. My friend Jen ended up winning our AG so it was nice to have some friendly competition!

Steve ended up placing in his AG also. All in all it was a great race and the conditions were perfect to run that day! For our AG placings we both received medals, which have now been added to the collection! Overall we both liked this race and would definitely run it again!

Great New Years Eve 5K:

Several years ago I had run this Great New Years Eve race so I could not really recall what the course was like until running it again this year. It's a tough course but I liked it! I think the elevation chart has it at 300+ feet of gain over the 3.1 miles so it's not a PR course but it sure was a challenge trying to sprint up the hills! The course starts and finishes at the Stow/Munroe Falls High School. It is a fairly big race too with more than 700 runners. We were happy to see some friendly faces around. The weather was chilly in the 30s so I opted to race in my Pearl Izumi Ultra 3/4 tights and a tee with some armwarmers, gloves and a Snakebite Racing headband.

The first mile or so it was sleeting in my face as I was running up the hills. I was with the leading ladies for this first mile before dropping back a little to a pace more comfy for me. At the turn around I felt okay so I just tried to maintain a decent pace. The last mile was hard. It was mostly uphill. My legs would not go as fast as my heart wanted to. But I vowed to run that stinking hill as best as I could after the blow up at Jingle Bell a couple weeks back. Taking the right back toward the school was a little downhill but it seemed far away and I didn't have much kick left in me so I was passed by a chick at the last second to finish 5th place female and 1st in my AG with a time of 21:44. After the race SARC had a nice spread of food including some veggie soup to help warm us up. Steve also won first in his AG. SARC gave the AG winners blankets versus medals, which was kindof cool.

So that wrapped up the racing for 2016. It was a hard but fun and successful season for me and Steve. I will be working on my 2016 recap in the coming week or two. I am excited for another challenging season ahead in 2016 and lucky to be part of a new team (Snakebite Racing) and also have some great sponsors lined up including Freeplay Magazine (Team Freeplay), Pearl Izumi, Team Nuun and the Cleveland Marathon.