Well, I guess I'll BRIEFLY explain my absence on my blog (again). I'd started training for what was supposed to be my "comeback" half marathon in September, but with my work schedule, my son being sick from daycare (ugh), and life, training just got away from me. I was up to 8-miles with the jogger, but skipping a long run is not a good idea for me because it was hard to get back into the groove of things, including blogging. I continued working out and going to my classes, while eating not so great. I actually gained about 10 lbs (I've loss 6 of those so far). That 10 lbs was motivation to actually put money on another race, so I decided to sign up for the Hot Chocolate...I was chasing a new medal, and this was perfect since now the Hot Chocolate race series gives medals AND jackets for 15k participants. Was that brief? :-)
I enlisted an old running buddy to help motivate me to run OUTDOORS after work while I had childcare and we ran long on Saturday mornings. FYI, the 15k is 9.3 miles. He had me become comfortable with 9.5-10 miles to be sure I'd be comfortable...well, so I thought (not his fault).
On to race day... I ran the 5k last year (first race 3 months postpartum/no recap) so I knew what to expect. This race is very organized with start corrals according to pace. You know not everyone followed the rules, though. I did. :-)
I'd had the flu (along with my son) a few days for the race. By mile 3, I had coughed up ALL of my mucus and could finally breathe! I actually had to stop a few times I was coughing so much. That's never happened to me during cold weather running and certainly not during a race.
Miles 3-6 were easy, I ran a steady pace, trying to make sure I was conserving energy up the hills. Oh, but when I got to the gi-NORMOUS hill at mile 7, I mentally gave up. This basically set the tone for the remainder of the race for me. And when you're NOT running with your buddy on race day, I had no one to push me. So I walked/ran the rest of the race.
I was so disappointed that I had only 2 miles or so to complete and I gave up. I'm sure I could of finished faster, but no.
I don't know if I'd do that race again next year because of the course. But then again, that's how most Atlanta races are. Atlanta is very hilly. I just felt like they put even more hills in the race to be funny. Seriously.
After finally reaching the finish line, which I did run the last 1/2 mile, I think. We were greeted with our medals, plenty of water and sports drink, banana, hot chocolate, fudge, and other little treats. Oh and my jacket I had picked up at the race expo is of decent quality.
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| I was happy to be back in my car because it was coooooold! |
