Jingle Bell 5K Recap

PR!!! PR!!! PR!!! PR!!!

Yes, I am BEYOND excited because we have been waiting a week for results.  I forgot my Garmin (again, bad runner, BAD runner) so all I had to go on was that it felt like a fast race.  However that could be because of the blowing snowy and slick roads.

But let me compose myself and give a proper recap.

It was cold and windy and less then favorable conditions....as in 23 degrees with 10-15mph winds and a 90 mile drive so that we could run 3.1.  Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?  Thankfully, I had my partners-in-crime with me as Katie (the other sporting a tutu), Jamie, Heather and Sammy all along for the ride.  Literally...we piled into Heather's mega-cab at 630am for the drive to the race. 

Sidebar:  The race was not only 90 miles away but in another time zone, moving everything up an hour for us.....thats just how we roll in the sandhills.

Jamie made breakfast burritos (super delicious), the smell of them didn't make Sammy puke as she warned was possible on Facebook the night before (always a plus), and the tutus didn't get crushed on the way to the race (it was all about the tutus). 

Me, Heather, Jamie, Sammy and Katie

We made it, slipped and slide across the parking lot and seriously questioned what we were doing.  Jamie questioned what she was doing there and if a sweatshirt was worth it.  I didn't tell her till after we were already there that if she had skipped out, her sweatshirt would have been mailed to her anyway.  I'm pretty sure she considering strangling me at that time but we were in public town so might as well run, right? 

Sidebar #2:  Check out Jamie's race recap here....after reading it, I'm sure she was cursing me after finding out about the sweatshirt disclaimer, oops!

There were over 600 people at the race.....YIKES!!!  Conditions being what they were and the amount of people, Katie and I figured out hopes of a sub 27 were gone.  And really, I was OK with that......conditions were bad so I had an excuse if it all went down the snow covered drain.

Katie and I figured out that if we stayed to the shoulder and ran in the snow (versus the packed-down snow in the middle of the road) we would have better traction, which we did.  We did take off kinda quick and I wished we hadn't because I really wanted to pass on the news-flash to the rest of the ladies so that they didn't crash either, but it would have been more dangerous for me to stop in the middle of the pack of runners on snow-packed/icy roads then to just keep going....so I hoped they were all OK. 

Starting line...yep, told ya..snow covered roads!

We ran hard, and it wasn't so much to get a better time as much as we wanted that snow as fresh and non-stomped on as we could possibly get!  Apparently it worked well for us as we crossed the finish line.....to find out the clock couldn't be used in snow. 

No visible time.  No watch.  NOTHING TO GO ON....AHHHHHHHHH!!!!

With 600 runners I wasn't going to ask the guy poor soul  who was manually writing down the times that the other guy poor soul was calling out to him while yet another guy poor soul was taking our bib tags.  Nope, I figured we would wait till they were posted and get them there...no PR was possibly anyway so why worry about it.

Katie and I headed out to the corner before the finish line to cheer on our running buddies and it wasn't long before we saw Heather coming down the road!!  Not far behind her was Sammy and Jamie was a few paces behind her.  We all made it, no one slipped, no one WALKED and no one was injured!!

We loaded back into Heather's mega cab and headed back to work the high school concession stand as a fundraiser for the youth organization that we are all a part of and helps raise money for the kids in our tiny town to participate in sports. 

No, we didn't sport the tutus in the concession stand.

Fast forward a week....I emailed the race direction and asked if she had the time, could she please email me our results. 

Imagine my shock and awe when I read 26:11!! 

26:11.  We hit our goal.  We beat our goal....we smashed it into the ground and slipped and slid on our goal......as Jamie would say WOOT WOOT!!!

I wonder what we could have done in good conditions?  With my watch?  Probably not nearly as well, to be honest.  With the watch, I would have thought, slow down, you pushing to hard for the slick roads.  I may have been more conservative to keep from getting hurt and landing on my tutu. 

But I didn't have the watch and I wasn't more conservative and I honestly ran my tutu off and felt good.  I feel even better knowing my time.  I now know what I'm capable of doing.  I have no excuses.  I am capable of a 26:11 5 K, so I'm capable of a 25:59 5K, which is my new goal. 

I'm also capable of 13.1 miles, which is my next big adventure, May 6, 2012 in Lincoln.  So far partners-in-crime Katie and Heather are in, and I'm hoping Jamie also (I promised no peer pressure, but I didn't promise you wouldn't tweet her and pressure her).  Sammy should be but since she is the high school rodeo drill Sergeant coordinator, she should probably be there instead of trasping across Lincoln with us.  However, we are much more fun.

I love my new PR, but I'm so very thankful that I was able to spend a girls day with some great friends.  I'm very happy and proud of Jamie and Heather for sticking with their plans and running the race.  Its an accomplishment, for sure and they both rocked!!! 

Cant wait till the next one ladies!!!!