Race Recap: Frosty 5K

Let me just say, this is the oddest race recap I've ever written.

On Saturday, I ran in the 14th annual Frosty 5K on Peoria's riverfront.  A 5K is 3.1 miles, right?  And yet my Garmin ended up with 17... I was an over zealous runner who signed up for a race on a day that I should have been focusing on a 17 mile long run. You know, for that little thing called the Marathon. So I did the next most sensible thing and ran them together.

~Sunrise over the riverfront~
The reward for starting early...
you get views like this!

Bright and early Saturday morning (6:45ish), I parked my car at the race starting line and jogged a mile down the riverfront to the meeting spot, where I would hook up with about 10 other Sole Sisters. We all vary a bit in pace and end up breaking apart, but it's always fun to start off together. I really had no route planned for the run. Sometimes I just like to wing it (which I'll admit is much easier with a Garmin on your wrist). Someone mentioned the loop to Bass Pro, so we headed that way. It was a chilly morning at only 14 degrees. I dressed pretty comfortable, but my cheeks and nose were getting nipped by the cold. Thankfully there was no wind for a change.

After crossing the bridge twice (beautiful views but working elevation!), we looped into downtown Peoria. I wasn't 100% sure where the race was, so I wanted to check it out. Plus I was a moron and forgot to pick up my race packet the previous day (first timer?).  We saw someone dressed up in a snowman costume in the middle of the street, waving to cars. Yup, that's the place! So we all ran by and gave Frosty a high five.  My friends were nice enough to wait while I ducked inside to pick up my race bib.

KO and I with Frosty before the race

We continued our loop back to the meeting spot, where some gals called it a day.  KO and I ventured onward down the riverfront trail. Quickly, we realized that we were following the course for the race. So what the heck... we ran the whole course and made our way back to the starting line to do it again. Circling the parking lot, our warmup miles hit exactly 10. Sweet!

It was a small race, but impressive turnout for how cold it was outside. Obviously, I wasn't racing this one for a time goal. Who does a 10 mile warmup, right? We had been running a leisurely pace over the morning. KO and I stuck together and ran the race course (again), but now we dialed it down to a 9:46 avg pace for the 5k. Not too shabby.

Official Chip Time - 30:18

Overall 147/245

Females 67/143

Div 10/23

We came through the finish line without even a pause. We just kept on running!  4 more miles... until 17.  It ended up being a really nice long run that went by quick. Maybe since the miles was broken up and I saw so many people I knew along the way. My overall pace wasn't too bad either... 17 miles in 3:01 (10:38 avg). The best part is that the next day, I felt great! I foam rolled, did yoga and even an hour of Spinning. I can't remember the last time I felt so good after a long mileage run. It was a stark contrast to last weekend and a pleasant surprise.

Technically, this is my first of #13in2013 -- although I plan on making that 13 races of longer distance (10K and up). We'll see how the year goes...