Cool Peeps 5k & Half Marathon - Run

First let me talk about what led up to this race. Last year I decided I wanted to try to break 2 hours in the half marathon. I hired a coach because I"d never done speed work and really didn't know how to go after this goal. She helped me a lot, gave me some self confidence and a kick in the pants. My goal race last year got canceled, and I ended up having to do a race on the way to a vacation. I didn't taper as well as I wanted, it was hotter than I wanted, I had to sleep in a bed away from home the night before, etc. Basically it was a train wreck. I finished in 2:01:26 which was super depressing after working my buns off (even though it was a PR for me, and the next closes PR had been set 6 years earlier).

This year my goal race was scheduled for April 27. After extensive flooding in our area, parts of the course were so damaged that they weren't going to be repaired in time for the race so, you guessed it, the race was cancelled. So frustrating!

Husband and I are planning a trip to Hawaii from the 19th to the 26th, and I was worried that my taper for my goal race would be rough because of all the adventures we had planned for this week. So I decided to do this race, two weeks earlier, instead of trying to find one closer to my original planned race date. I had enough time to basically chop two weeks off of my build portion of my race, fast forward my taper, and hope for the best.

I had been training for a 1:55 pace half marathon, I thought that would give me a bit of wiggle room in case of bad weather or whatever. But now since I was losing 2 weeks of training I wasn't sure if it was going to be enough.

I mapped the course ahead of time to get the elevation. This was the first year of this race, and it was over an hour from my house on a trail I wasn't familiar with. Since there was a slight elevation gain on the first half, and we were going into the wind, I set a goal pace for 8:55-9:05 for the first half, and dropped it to 8:40-8:50 for the second half.

It was colder than I would have liked; had to wear tights and a long sleeved shirt, jacket, gloves, and warm hat. By the halfway point I was shedding layers and the weather felt perfect with the sun shining. I was slightly worried about the gravel/crushed limestone because nearly 100% of my training had been on hard surfaces.

I honestly had such a great attitude going into this race. Last year I was just crabby, slightly overtrained, pissed off about all the rescheduling and organizing. This year I was so much more chill, even though the circumstances were similar I just had a better attitude. I felt great from the start. I had dressed perfectly for the weather, I had tapered well and actually had a super lazy day on Thursday which was awesome. Friday night I slept soundly, usually before a race I'm awake every 30 minutes thinking I've missed my alarm.

I ate a Cliff bar in bites during the race, took two salt tabs, carried a bottle of water with me which I finished just after crossing the finish line. Couldn't have timed any of that better, it just all worked out.

Honestly I wouldn't do anything differently. I still can't believe I finally met my goal.

I laid down on the ground and tried not to die. I was super happy but I was really really really tired. I stretched a little bit but honestly I just wanted to go home afterwards. I got my soda but there were Krispy Kreme doughnuts and I forgot to get one - how does that even happen?!?! That shows you how tired I was!


Nothing, really. Another week or two of building would have been nice but I had done enough to meet my goal!


This was the first time this race had been run. It was organized enough. I would have liked to see more information provided, such as an elevation map and drink station locations. There were not enough volunteers to man the drink stations, so there were just coolers and cups sitting out. And that is totally fine and understandable, this was a tiny race. It was fun though, and I think it has a lot of potential. The course was lovely, the finisher's shirt was decent and it was nice to be able to pick the color of your shirt.