Snowflake Chase (Old Race Report #1)

Last week, I mentioned wanting to to recaps of the few races I've completed in the past months, before blogging. What better way to start than with one that took place in January, when it was cold, snowy and icy. Those days, I couldn't wait for warm weather. Now that it's hot, I just want it to go away.

The Snowflake Chase is a 5-mile run. It was the first time I'd ever run 5 miles outside before and it's what got me hooked on starting to run longer, and longer distances. My first official race (I don't count the one I blogged about here) was a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 5K in 2009. I walked/ran it with my husband. That one made me realize that running a race was fun and a race is a good way to push myself to do something more than pound out a few miles on the treadmill.

On Christmas Day, I remember mentioning to my family that we were interested in finding another 5K to run, but hadn't found too much coming up soon. They quickly suggested the Snowflake Chase, since they run it every year. My husband said he wasn't ready for a 5-miler but I figured I could tackle it so I went ahead and signed up. After signing up, my sister informed me that it wasn't an easy course. Guess they wanted to save that tidbit until after I sent in my registration form and money!

I drove up and stayed with my sister the night before since it's not that close to my house. My mom did the walk while my sister, brother-in-law and a bunch of people they know ran the 5 miles. Since my sister doesn't care much about times or being competitive these days, she stuck with slow-poke me for the whole race. I dressed WAY too warm for this and had layers everywhere and was a sweaty mess at the end due to this. It was actually warm for January day up there. They had just come out of foot after foot of bad snow-storms and were experiencing a lull in the snow and bad weather.

It was an out and back course and wasn't as bad as I had envisioned, just a little hilly but nothing outrageous. I felt good for the first half but about mile 4, I was ready for it to be over. My mom was utterly shocked when she saw us coming down toward the finish. This whole running thing completely amazes her since I'd never wanted anything to do with it in the past. Crossed the finish line in 49:40. Certainly not speedy but I was thrilled since I hadn't run that far outside before and I was happy with the time. This was before I owned a watch, a Garmin or anything else related to running. Just me and a pair of shoes.

Post race is held at an Uno's restaurant where there was lots of free yummy pizza. We enjoyed that and were for the awards. I won myself a water bottle for 2nd place in my age group...who cares if there were only 3 people in my age group...haha!!

The next day, I get an e-mail asking me if I wanted to do a 15K in March and a half marathon in April. I replied and said, sure, because actually, I had already looked into signing up for a half marathon in March. I figured the one in March was a little too soon but April sounded feasible.

Thus began my new obsession!