Woo hoo!  First race(s) since the marathon!  And it was one of my favorites.  🙂

I think I’ve talked enough about the logistics of this race over the years, even recently with my origin story.  But if you’re looking for those details you can check out my reviews over on bibrave.com.   Funny thing- a coworker called me today and asked if I had ever googled HOB Fun Run and clicked on images.  No, why?  So I did it.  Holy crap, the images are either of me or taken by me.  WTH?!  And man, I change my hair color a lot.  😛

Race morning dawned early and of course my stomach was being an asshat. Lovely.  I didn’t get to the start as early as I wanted.  I had planned on attempting a warm up but was only able to get in a few blocks of walking.  I stashed my shirt for the 5K at the refreshment table and lined up at the start.

10K

Loop 1- Miles 1-3 – 9:25, 9:54, 10:08

The plan had been to try and get as close to goal half marathon pace as possible but I knew from the moment I woke up that wasn’t likely.  Mile 1 was my quickest of the race.  My legs felt ok but I was feeling really sluggish and couldn’t seem to find another gear.    Mile 2 was more of the same but I just kept running.  I was hoping I just needed some time to warm up and would pick up the pace soon.  Around mile 2.25 something felt weird on my left foot.  I looked down and my shoelace was completely untied and flapping around.   Huh?! I think my shoes have only come untied one other time…ever.  I pulled to the side to retie but seemed to have lost all motor skills- it took forever!   As I was coming up on mile 3 towards the start line I could hear the motorcycle police officer coming up behind me.   Which meant I was about to get lapped by the race leaders.  Yay.  So they ran a 10K faster that I completed the 3.1 miles of loop one.  Ouch.   Loop one- 30:25 minutes.

I was getting more and more sluggish as I ran.  The skies were clear and the smoke has been gone for a while but my lungs were not happy at all.  Walk breaks became a real thing and I used my inhaler a few times.   A woman came up behind me just before mile 4 and asked if I was ok- I was coughing a bit and she saw me pull out my inhaler.  We ended up leap frogging each other the rest of the way.  We chatted a bit occasionally too.  She was from out of town and had registered the day before when she saw the booth in the park.    I said something about how it just wasn’t my day out there and things were rougher than they should have been.  I whined.  I later felt like an asshat when I overheard her on the phone saying it was one of her best races.   And I was whining the whole time- I’m sorry!!!    I hit mile 5 around 50 minutes and wondered if I could push the pace to finish under 1 hour.  Yeah no.

Finish- 1:02:55

Not the race I had hoped for but it was what I expected in those rare moments that  I am realistic with myself.  😛 I missed the group photo opp so I grabbed my other shirt and then hauled ass to my car.  I changed my shirt and my shoes.  The last 2 miles of the 10k in my Nikes felt like my feet were on fire.  Luckily I had the Hoka’s in my car.

5K

Cool thing about this race is that a lot of kids run, bike or scoot with their parents.  It’s just an accepted part of the race and there’s never any talk about bandits, which is cool since I ran with 2 coworkers and 2 kids.  🙂  One coworker brought her 2 kids and they were going to ride their scooters with us.   I’ve learned that running with kids is more like fartlek training.  😛 Run!!!!!! Walk.  Run!!!!!! Walk.  Water!   It was kind of awesome.   And major props to my coworker- she was hauling a backpack with water and at one point was carrying both scooters.   Moms rock!    About halfway, her son (5) started fading and her daughter(7) started pulling ahead.  I caught up with her and from then on we were in two teams.  I did whatever she wanted to do and I learned that I should hang out 7 year olds more- she was awesome.  At one point she asked why she could smell donuts.  I told her we were passing the donut shop and pointed it out.  Her response?  “Oh, come on!”.  I busted up laughing and for the next few blocks we talked about food.  🙂    She tired of the scooter so I started carrying it.  It took me a few minutes to figure it out, luckily I only bruised one shin.    I asked her is she wanted to wait for her mom and brother to catch up and she said no so we bolted to the finish.

45:17

All in all, was a good day and a fun one.   I look forward to next year’s race.

• Race Day
• Recap
• Run!