Monday, December 24, 2012

2012 in 2012: Sandy Relief Challenge - Day 43 + Jingle Bell Run PR

Miles to run as of beginning of Wednesday, 12/19: 84.86

Miles run on 12/19: 6.9

Ermahgerd. Let me start this one off with a short back story. Before arriving in Texas, I spoke with my friend Marilyn about running a half marathon on the 22nd. It came up that she was also running this 5k, the Jingle Bell Run. This tickled me, because back in 1993, my brother and I spectated this very race with our mom. We got this button made:

Adorbz
Gotta love the ugly sweater, bubble necklace and snaggle teeth. Anyway, I decided I'd run the race too, because it had been a long time since I'd run a 5k. Also, this button.

Marilyn picked me up in the afternoon and before we headed to the race, we did a 1.6 mile warmup around her neighborhood. We met up with two other people who were also running and rode to the race together. We made it just in time for registration and I was surprised that we were able to get as close to the start line as we did.

The gun went off promptly at 7:30. Even though I was nearly at the front, I still had to dodge a bunch of slow people, but if last year's Turkey Trot was any indication, it could have been much, much worse. The weather was beautiful and I believe the temperature was just below 70 degrees. Even though my shoe came untied before the first mile marker, the situation didn't have much impact on my run. I think what was more annoying was having to hold my race t-shirt in one hand and phone in the other.

I kept my pace fast the whole time, hoping to run right around a 23:30. To my delight, I actually ran a 23:27! That was a major PR and also not too shabby in terms of the overall results.

Stats:
Total finishers: 1030 (528 women, 502 men)
Overall place: 170
Gender place: 35
Age group place: 6
Pace: 7:31/mile

In an effort to do a little bit more in terms of miles, I turned back at the end of the race and ran back to the 2 mile marker and back to the finish for an extra 2.2 miles.

Miles to run as of beginning of Thursday, 12/20: 77.96

Fundraising link!

http://www.crowdrise.com/2012in2012forsandyrelief/

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