After thinking I had injured myself, I took almost a month off running in December. I went back to physical therapy to work on strengthening, and to find out that my injury was mostly in my head. (Hey, better safe than sorry!) By this time, I had skipped out on my planned December race – and boy, will my friends never let me live that one down! The year was wrapping up and I didn’t have much choices for races left.
I had plans to spend New Year’s Eve with my friends Matt & Paula, so I decided on a NYE race close to their house. Another member of Michigan Runners was going to run the race too, which was cool, since I had never met her before and I wouldn’t have to run by myself!
Race day was unseasonably warm. It was one of those “Crap, what do I wear?” races. I ended up consulting the Runner’s World What to Wear calculator – which really helped! Who knew I’d wear capris and a long sleeve shirt to a race at the end of January in Michigan!? The race course, however, definitely still had winter conditions. It was on a trail which was partially paved, partially dirt. And there were some nice patches of ice and snow to navigate. It was okay though – I had zero expectations going into this race, other than to run the whole thing and not let it be the worst 5k I’d ever done. ;)
I ended up doing negative splits for the first 3 miles, a little slower on the finish. My first mile was 11:28, second 11:17 and third 10:49. The last .14 miles was done at 11:00/mile, with a finish time of 35:04, a pace of 11:11/mile. I finished – but more importantly, my friend from the running group got not only her PR, but a sub 30 minute 5k! Amazing job for such crappy course conditions and weird weather. We stayed afterwards for pizza and cookies, and I ended up winning a raffle prize – a Brooks Running pint glass, super awesome! It even came in a mini shoebox!
Top off a great return to running race with a night spent with my running friends – it was one of the best New Year’s Eves I’ve ever had!
RD on the Run 