I stumbled upon this race back in August and signed up right away to get the special pricing – $35 got you a 5k with a cinnamon roll at the finish and a long sleeved quarter zip! Plus I needed a November race to continue my “run a race every month” streak. Win win win!
Sometime this summer, my friend Kendra started Couch to 5k. I virtually ran with her and our other friend Paula on week 1 day 1. Kendra ran her first 5k in the beginning of October. Unfortunately I missed her first one, so I was really excited that she was going to run the Hungry Turkey with us!
The day before the race I ran with Kendra for the first time. Poor girl is just getting over the flu and was struggling a bit. The weather that day was perfect… the weather on race day? Eh, not so much! And definitely not favorable to a girl recovering from illness!!
Although it was only a few degrees cooler Saturday morning, the cloudiness and misting rain made it feel much colder. Luckily it wasn’t a downpour, just a light mist, but still not exactly pleasant. Ken and I hung out in our car until the very last second, then we met up with Paula and Kendra and headed to the start. I set my watch to 1:1 run/walk intervals for me and Ken, and we were off!
The course wasn’t super interesting, just a jog around the zoo, through the surrounding neighborhoods. There were lots of volunteers and the course was pretty flat, which was really nice. On a day with better weather it probably would’ve been more enjoyable.
Ken and I stuck to the 1:1 intervals for the first mile. After that, we took a few extra walk breaks, but we didn’t walk longer than 2 minutes at a time. Ken did pretty good considering he hasn’t run since the beginning of October! We kinda piggy backed Kendra and Paula, cuz when Ken runs at an “easy pace” it’s like a sub 10 minutes per mile pace. They ended up finishing just ahead of us.
We saw a few people with medals but realized at the end that they must have been the winners because we didn’t get a medal. Not a big deal for me – I run a lot of races and have a lot of medals! We got our cinnamon roll and water. I tore into my cinnamon roll right away because I hadn’t eaten since the day before! Oops!
Overall it was a good race, and I was especially glad that it supported a cause that’s dear to us – ALS, the disease that Ken’s best friend’s dad passed away from. The shirt was just a regular cotton material, not tech, so I would’ve preferred to have just gotten a long sleeve without the zipper. The cinnamon rolls were good but I wish I had waited and had mine warmed up! The best part was getting to run with my friends and my hubby. We had a great time.
RD on the Run 