I haven't done a stand-alone 5K since 2006. I wanted to get in a better warm up, but just not possible since I needed to meet up with my friends who were kind enough to offer child supervision. My husband was riding in the Upstate Winter Bike League, so it was just me and the kids. 10 year old is not mature enough to watch over the 7 year old without issues arising. When the gun went off, I wanted to go out strong. I did. A bit too strong. First mile was done in 6:39:o So I settled into a rhythm and breathed like a freight train. I could see a 9 year old kid in front of me and I was dead-set on taking him down! You are mine, little kid! I kept waiting for him to fade, but that dang little sucker was fast! Finally, at mile 2, I made the pass. He refused to surrender and was drafting off me! We had to make one final loop around the mall and I really wanted to turn on some speed. This is "only" a 5K. I should be able to have some speed left. Saw my next target. A maybe 16 year old boy. Thought I would try to go get him. He must have had the same idea as me, because he turned on the speed as well. I never caught him. I could see him, but I could not make up any ground on him. I finished the race. I saw my target hand over his tag then puke. I felt better. He ran to the hurl point. He deserved to finish ahead of me. 9 year old finished 2 seconds behind me. Not kidding. 2 seconds. Really. Smokin' fast little kid.

Warm up. Maybe plan to race more than 24 hours ahead of time. I dunno. It was fun to run a short race. Just need to learn how to hold back a bit at the start and let 'er rip at the end.

Picking and packing up all the stuff I'd brought for the kids.


My slow self.


My only complaint about this race is that there was an unmarked area of ice on the course. It just looked wet. But the little 9 year old was still ahead of me at this point and I saw him go sideways. The nimble little guy stayed upright and kept going, but it clued me in to be cautious. They really could have used someone there to point out that it was ice. I hope nobody went down at that spot cuz it was slippery.