A few weeks ago, J & I ran the Moonlight Madness 5K in Winston-Salem. It was his first time running the 5K (last year he did the 1 mile fun run), and my fifth year in a row–my only race streak! You can read my race report on 2015‘s race, but I just checked and I haven’t written any other race reports, darn!
They changed the date this year, as the race is usually in mid-September. This year it came in August (i.e. even hotter!) and just 5 days after my Triathlon. So, I wasn’t really well rested, but the day of, I thought you know, I’m gonna do my best and see how it goes. Last year, I came in 5th place in my age group (tying with 4th place in 24:20), so I really just wanted to beat that time. But dang, it was hot as &%$*!
J picked up our race packets the day prior at Omega Sports, so we were ready to go! We dropped the kids off at my friend T’s, and headed over to our parking spot on Third St. near Krankie’s Coffeehouse, only two blocks from the race site at Bailey Park. As we waited for my friends KK, DK, and TM (who all ran the last four years too), we got a fun pic at the United Way table:
Then we decided to have even more fun by trying to get a “cool” pic with the Reynolds smoke stacks in the background:
We forgot to get a pic here, but this is my reminder for next year:
And we got a cute shot together:
We linked up with friends and got a great group shot:
We watched the fun run, and prepped for our race. J & I split a watermelon GU and finally decided we are tired of that flavor! (we have a box of 24 that’s nearly gone) I did a brief warm up, since it was so darn hot, and shed my shirt (rather, hid it in the bushes!) I positioned myself near the front, and got ready to rock! I really wanted to try to negative-split the race–to run each mile faster than the previous one. I almost always start too fast!
Well, guess what? I started too fast. Oh well 🙂 I felt good, so I went. I only had one small issue–the water at mile 2 sloshed in the cup just as I was about to drink, and I somehow snorted it up my nose! Which of course made me cough, and laugh at myself. Good Lord, V. I started fading during mile 3, and told myself to just hang on. There were plenty of women around me, and I was hanging in there because they were. I was roasting, and so glad when the finish line finally came into sight! My lunges seared by the summer evening air, I could barely breath at the end! I pulled over, heaving and gasping, hands on my knees, to catch my breath. Whew, glad that’s done!
I had stopped my watch and it said 24:21–one second slower than last year, darn! Except that my chip time said 24:15, yay! I wasn’t even concerned about the age group placement anymore, as my fifth place last year made me think I might not ever place in the age group (way to be a downer, huh?) I waited for the rest of them, drank some cold water, and tried to take deep breaths. I was pumped to see J cross the finish:
We waited for the others, and grabbed our pizza and beer to chill in the park. I love the ambiance of this race so much! It’s a big party in downtown Winston, with great music and everyone having a blast! This pic doesn’t do it justice, but it’s what I got from my iPhone:
I figured I’d see how I fared in the old age group, and lo & behold… 2nd place!!! Whoo hooooo! It’s been a goal of mine ever since I ran it in 2012 to place. I was really pumped, especially because I feel like my fitness has plateaued and I haven’t been getting faster (um, hello summer heat & humidity though?!) We waited for the awards, and come to find out, there were beers and glasses given out instead of medals. That’s pretty sweet tho!
I got this great shot of my awards with the kitties the next day 🙂
Full results here.
Course map and my splits n such:
Next up is the Salem Lake 7 Miler on 9/24, just two weeks left to train!
Thanks so much for reading!
xoxo,
V
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