Some people blog to hold themselves accountable. I blog for the sheer embarrassment of it and to have a place to put all my thoughts and words down for eternity.

I was excited about the Hot Chocolate Race, and even when I got the first “extreme temperature advisory” email I wasn’t going to let it phase me. But then on Saturday I did some walking around outside in the cold, and then Saturday evening I was outside in cold temperatures that weren’t even as cold as they would supposedly be Sunday morning, and I just started freaking out. I remember running a few times in extreme (well, extreme to me, it’s all relative, I imagine) cold and one time in particular that I ran a 5k and honestly, the entire time it just really sucked. My legs were frozen, my feet were basically numb. And that was old Hannah. I used to be way more hard core.

So much to the disappointment of many people, and with the full support of others, I decided NOT to run the race this morning. It isn’t, as other races have been, because I didn’t want to run, because in fact, now that it has been light for many hours and the temperature is back up to a normal winter temperature, I will be running…but because the idea of getting up and being cold and running (at my current slow pace) for a long time…I just wanted to tear out my hair and cry. Plus the idea of dealing with the ice and snow getting to my car and the race…just everything about it made me say…not today.

If that makes me lame, I’m fine with it. At least fairly fine. You can totally call me lame in the comments.

I hope the race went well for those that ran, and I definitely applaud those of you who were far more hearty and determined than I am! I think for me, I’m just going to focus on my next plan, which is…the Go Half Marathon in April. I spectacularly failed last year at training for it, and this year is going to be very different. And I know it won’t be cold—it’ll probably be unbearably hot, but at least that doesn’t make me cry. (Okay, it might make me cry, but that’s just me.) I want to do the half again to give myself a new goal and a focus. I’ve been floundering for awhile, and it’s been a very tough year (for reasons I haven’t outright said on the blog especially, and I’m sorry for not being more open), but I know that I need to pull myself back together, and a spring half marathon will help. Blah blah blah. Really, I just want to dream of the days where I come here and complain how HOT it is outside and how awful that is. I should bookmark this blog post to read then that happens 😉

So that’s it. Me rationalizing my lame behavior. Eh. *shrugs*. It’s just a race. I did pick up my hoodie and travel mug, so I did get something for my entry fee at least!

How was your weekend? What did you plan to do and then bail on? Or even more impressive (perhaps)…what did you achieve?

Thursday morning (yes, that’s Thanksgiving) Leslie and I ran the Lifetime Turkey Day 5k in Downtown Phoenix.(there was also a 10k option, which one of our friends ran.)

As regular readers know, this year has not been great for my running and general fitness. I’ve had a lot of personal issues, and I’ve gained weight and haven’t been running as much. That being said, over the past few weeks I’ve been pretty consistent at getting in about three runs (run/walks—not back to running all the time yet) per week, so I felt pretty good going into this race—one foot in front of the other and just keep moving.

(This was the BEST pre race photo we took. I kid you not.)

Except…and not to make excuses but this has to be said because it’s just so Hannah…I got to Phoenix on Sunday and Monday night Leslie and I decided to go to a Bodypump class at her gym. I’d figured that would give enough time to get sore and get over it by Thursday, but I was incorrect. Tuesday was bad, Wednesday I could barely move, and Thursday my hamstrings were still killing me. But I decided, whatever, sticking with my plan of 2:30 run/1:15 walk intervals and would just soldier through. And that I did, though I suspect my run intervals were slower than my walking intervals. Oh well. One can do almost anything for 5k, right, and besides, I didn’t regret doing the Bodypump class because it reminded me how much I used to love feeling strong and lifting heavy stuff. (And how much I didn’t really like Bodypump, but I digress.) I was active every single day of vacation, either the class, running, or walking, and I liked how I felt doing it.

Leslie, posing for the pre-race photo.

The race: Race morning we all needed to get our packets (Leslie, me, and two of her friends), since for some unknown reason all the packet pick up locations were at least 30 minutes away…so we had to get up extra early to get the stuff the morning of. Packet pickup was being run by people who had trouble reading names in alphabetical order, so it was VERY slow. I hate to complain about volunteers, but I think the system was poor, and some of the lines were incredibly long and slow moving. We finally got our shirts and bibs, and headed back to the car to drop them off, but we all decided to just wear our shirts, since they were soft, it was a short race, and (most importantly) everybody else seemed to be doing it.

Also as you saw, they were bright yellow.

Anyway. The race was good. I finished in a very slow 41:20 but I was happy about it.  I stayed with my intervals, and hadn’t run that far in quite some time, so I felt pretty great about it. I also hadn’t run that far with seriously sore hamstrings, so I felt even better about that! Basically I accomplished my goal of finishing a 5k race on Thanksgiving morning.

(Did you want more information about the race? I don’t have much else to say. Running is hard, but the more I do it the easier it gets.)

I included this picture to demonstrate proper running technique. Fists clenched and both feet on the ground.

Leslie’s is a bit better—both her feet are in the air! She’s recovering from an elbow fracture from a fall a few weeks ago, so not falling was her goal, and she accomplished that! I’m jealous of her purple shoes…

I met Leslie and our friend Aaron at the finish line, and we waited for our friend Chris who was doing the 10k. Post race food included rolls and bagels (my favorite), bananas, and a variety of SoyJoy bars (the one I tried was disgusting) and some other things too. After Chris finished we waited in a shorter line than packet pickup  to take this awesome picture with a turkey, which was a free download from the race organizers!

Aaron, Leslie, the Turkey, me, and our friend Chris.  

We all headed to Leslie’s for celebratory mimosas. Her husband Peter had just put the turkey in the oven and the house smelled amazing.

I think the bibs were cute. I’m a fan of turkeys. I would run this race another year if I were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving again.

Third time’s a charm, right? Well, the Benton Park race has turned into a little bit of a tradition for me and my friends. Traditionally we all dressed up and had fun with that…

(last year’s post, year before that)

I thought we were doing that this year, but I had a harder time getting a group together, and…well, I dressed up and Chris dressed up and frankly, that’s all that matters!

The race was about two weeks later this year than in the past. I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but I like the later date.  We were asked to go on TV to help promote the race, but unfortunately the scheduling just didn’t work out.(which was annoying, because you all know I love being on TV!)

Anyway, packet pickup was a breeze—I love doing packet pickup at Big River Running and the races they time always seem to be well done. I picked up for myself, Chris and Jen, and that was no problem.

We got a nice tech shirt—unisex fit, AND unisex color!

Anyway, the night before the race we had crazy storms here in St Louis. There were a couple of tornadoes that touched down north and west of the city, and the rain was relentless. Chris and I went to bed thinking that we really hoped it wasn’t raining in the morning, because running a 5k in the rain was not my idea of a good time. (Not to mention, since when IS running anyone’s idea of a good time? Seriously, it is hard and you get sweaty and out of breath, and why is it fun?)

Naturally it was still raining when we woke up. But we were up, and I got dressed, and we figured, well, we are up, so we might as well head over. First Chris took a few pictures of me, and the cat naturally wanted to be involved. We were pretty sleepy so we didn’t think to come up with a better backdrop. Also he didn’t want me to take a picture of him 🙁

(Ideally I would have just been wearing the pink shorts minus a modesty layer…but…my legs are just too long.)

Benton Park is a neighborhood that is pretty close to ours, so within ten minutes we were parked on a side street. (There’s tons of parking near the start, just make sure to avoid the streets that are marked for the race.)

After sitting in the car a few minutes we decided to mosey over to the race start. It was busy but organized. Because of the rain I didn’t want to deal with a lot of pictures, and we were also trying to find Jen. There were a variety of tents set up and people were picking up race packets and registering. There were lots of great costumes, including a guy dressed as Pee Wee Herman. We ran into a family of my students who were running and spectating and I chatted with them for a few. The rain started to let up, and by the time 9:00 rolled around, it had basically stopped. A Benton Park 5k MIRACLE.

We lined up, they played a cheesy version of the Star Spangled Banner, off we went. The course was pretty windy and went through the neighborhood and the park. It was a slightly different course than the year before which was fun as I didn’t know quite what to expect. My goal was to try to run the whole thing as slowly as possible, and I almost accomplished that.

The first mile was very slow but I was still going. The second mile is always the worst in a 5k, mentally (for me) because I am usually hurting but I know I’m not near the end. The third mile hurts the most but you know the finish is in sight! I stopped to walk a bit for the second mile, two different times. My hip was holding up okay, but I wanted to give it a break as I’d still been using walk breaks during my training runs a lot.  When I got to the last 1/2 mile or so I really tried to push myself—I may even have appeared, to the naked eye, to be running rather than walking in a strange manner. I kept Chris in sight for most of the race—he’d been dealing with a bad back and was worried he wouldn’t be able to run well, but he looked like he was managing just fine.

My favorite park of the Benton Park 5K is that the end is in the park. My least favorite park is that there is an uphill finish and it becomes kind of a choke point as you enter the park. I tried to sprint to the end, and I WAS DONE. 35:33. Still lots of improvement to get back to where I was, but I’m improving over the past month or two, so that’s good.

I look tired. Also, my shirt liked to ride up. We got pretzel medals like last year and there was water right at the finish. There was also evidently beer and wine but we had to get to work afterwards.

(I would have worn leg warmers, but I was worried about the rain and that they would just get soaked.)

We had also run into our friend Zach, who ran the race as his very first 5k. Go Zach!

The new thing this year was that there were race photos online with the results. You could buy them for $10 for all of them, which I think is a great deal IF the pictures are good. Mine were terrible, but Chris’s were nice. He didn’t want them, but he was pleased with them—in one he was actually airborne!

It was a great race and does a nice job of showcasing the neighborhood.  I hope to run it again next year! And I hope that I can convince more people to dress up…it is seriously more fun to run in a costume, I promise!

I’m trying this from my phone. Ran a 5k this morning. I wanted to share a picture of my costume since that’s more important than my time. (35:33).

Faster than any of my training runs lately so it was actually a decent race. Gaining ten or more pounds really slows you down! *ponders*

But it was fun and I’m glad I forced, er, convinced Chris to run too. We had other people in our group but no one else in costume so I’m not posting pictures. I’ll probably share a bit more later about the race, and the rain, and the tornados last night, but I’m tired and have a concert tonight to mentally prepare for. Hope to see some local readers there!