Hot Chocolate 15k Recap

You'd think since there is a race almost every weekend here in Nashville that I'd be jumping on board to fill up my schedule and earn some extra bling. That is just not the case since I've been saving money for traveling, and of course Nashville can be quite hilly. Now that the states are over,  I have  more funds, and my weekends free, (although hills are still here) one of my small goals for running this year was to participate in more local events.

For the past 2 solid months I've been on a hot chocolate kick. I blame the less than stellar temps (come on mother nature, we're in the south!) + my sweet tooth for my nightly relaxing hot chocolate binge. When I caught wind that the Hot Chocolate 5k / 15k series was coming through our city, I knew I HAD to do it.

Since I'm not in any 'speed' kind of shape, nor do I have any desire to "race" anytime soon I chose the 15k option... since its a new to me distance and I can go into the day without any expectations.

Jen and I before the race

For those of you that know me... I don't sugar coat things. I tell it like it is both on here, and in real life. This race was not all bacon and cupcakes (this is my replacement for rainbow and butterflies since I'm not 12 anymore and neither of those things gets me excited.. bacon and cupcakes, well they do). 

I feel like a "broken runner" - my attitude for races just sucks. I have zero desire to push myself. Seriously ever since Hawaii I've been averaging 0-3 days a week of running... most often 1 day. The only reason for going through with this race is because I was carpooling with above friend Jen and I didn't want to let her down. 

Why it sucked:

• 23 degrees + wind + no sun = miserable temps. It was strange because after awhile I started sweating, yet my hands and feet were numb... make up you mind weird body! 
• HILLS. Ya ya ya, Nashville has some hills. I can run hills just fine, however, ours are long and never ending. When you think you're done, you have more to go. In my 4 years here I have actually never ran up West End before. For those that are familiar with Country Music Marathon- this is the street you run all the way down in the first mile (although course is changed for this year)--- now imagine having to run up that in the wind- gah. 
• I never found my groove. Just as all things Lisa fashion my first mile was just following everyone and when I clocked in at 7:19 I pulled back knowing I would eventually die (one of these days I'll just wait till that happens and see what kind of time I can pull off) Since I decided to take it easy, apparently that meant shortening my stride. By mile 6 my hips were so sore from change of gait and I couldn't stride out if I tried because they had gone into robot mode. 
• And the other big reason for me on why it sucked is I just didn't care. Seems silly, but having no goals and no expectations, and frankly no desire to even do well apparently means that I will hate every minute of said activity while doing it. Noted. 

Since my experience was less than stellar, I debated on even blogging about it, however all my negativity had nothing to do with the organization RAM racing put into the event, so I figured for all those who are interested in a Hot Chocolate event, you might want to know about what a fabulous job they did.

• Expo was quick and painless in and out. I found a code if you registered by a certain date to receive a free travel mug with registration. My current mug is too big to fit in my car cup holders, this is the perfect replacement and I used it daily

not mine, source 

• Typically the swag aka race shirt is subpar and ill fitting. I'm not kidding when I say I FREAKING LOVE this hoodie. My race was Feb 15 and I've probably worn this bad boy 7x since then, even brought it with me last weekend to Phoenix and got so many compliments (so many others with it on as well) They let you try on sizes to exchange, since it was slightly fitted, I opted to change my L for the XL so it could be more roomy. The inside of the hoody and the stitching is what inspired my newest nail color as well 

• The 5k started at 7 and the 15k started at 8. We had slightly different starting areas, hence why corral "A"  is actually "I" for 15k.  I loved loved loved that the first few corrals they explicitly call out "no walkers" As I'm sure is the case for many of you, this is a huge pet peeve of mine when you have to bob and weave around walkers in the first mile of the race. 

• Every mile was marked AND had a clock with it- so rare to find that these days. I will say that for our course we apparently shared the first 2 miles with the 5k and the first mile marker was for us, but then maybe a min later there was another 1 mile marker for the 5k, same thing for mile 2. If you didn't have a GPS watch on  I could see where this would be confusing. 
• Water stations aplenty. They were perfectly spaced out about every 1.5-2 miles If it were hot I might have been upset that most were water and only 1 had gatorade, but in the cold I don't care. The first aid station I was handed a cup of ice so I had to swap it out for one that wasn't already frozen over. They don't supply you with gu, so if you feel you may need it for 15k, just bring your own. 
• There are a lot of out and backs which I actually like. Although it personally didn't help motivate me for this race, traditionally I love getting to pass by other runners, see friends if applicable, and just feed off everyone's energy. 
• Lots of spectators for this race. My philosophy on this is because its a unique concept to get a bunch of chocolate goodies at end of race, you have people that traditionally don't enter races do it for fun, hence more spectators to cheer on their friends in their rare 'race day performance' 
• Quite a few photographers on the course- dont be fooled by this photo- was actually rounding the corner to finish line, hence the smile

• Saved the best for last, but the after refreshments... OBVIOUSLY

hot chocolate. liquid chocolate to dip banana, wafers, pretzels, and rice krispie treats in. Pretzels were my fave for the sweet/ salty combo. Since it was FREEZING, my rice krispie treat was rock solid hard

Trying to get as much chocolate on my mouth as possible. 

Despite my misery, I'm glad I got a 15k under my belt. It did run long so I had 9.5 on my garmin, finishing in 1:18 with a 8:20 pace. Not bad for hating life and walking a ton. Aside from the mounds of chocolate consumed and getting in a 9.5 mile run I surely would have not done on my own, another good did come from the race-- I realized how greatly my attitude affects the outcome of not only performance, but also outlook on the race. Although I was originally excited when I signed up to run, on actual race morning I went into it with an "i don't want to be here" negativity. This continually grew as the miles ticked by and just made the entire run a train wreck.  I did learn from this and shifted my attitude for my next race following weekend (Ragnar Del Sol), which I will be blogging about next, but what a difference it made. 

If you have one of these events come to your city, I'd recommend checking it out. Next year I may just do the 5k--- all the same swag but about $27 cheaper! 

ORCC Turkey Trot (Race Recap)

Official Time: 37:08

Division: 3 / 506

Gender: 75/4217

This year was my 3rd time running the Turkey Trot 5 miler... that's enough to now mark it as a "tradition"  that my brother, Eric and I will continually take part in as long as we're both in town for Thanksgiving right?!?!

This year there was a lot of hype because:

1. It was the 35th anniversary of the race
2. Our Turkey Trot is officially the largest Turkey Trot East of Mississippi with 10,750 runners / walkers
3. New course that featured a few downhills. 

I'm not a fan of racing 5 miles as I go out too fast, die, then pick it back up again in the last mile or so for an attempt to 'finish strong'. This was true for 2010 race (left- time 40:36) as well as 2012 race (right- time 38:31)

This year I was hoping to not repeat this pattern (spoiler alert, I did), but also I wanted run something in the 37s- no particular time, just faster than the previous year. 

As mentioned above this is a brand new course, so despite my superb map reading abilities, I really couldn't get a handle on what it would be like race morning other than its "fast with a few downhills", so I was coming into it with the mindset of everything will be a surprise. 

Yes... Eric is wearing the same shirt as the above 2012 photo... no he did not have any starring role in Star Trek. 

For those that know me... I like to run practically naked- skirt and tank is my go to. I draw the line and add on the layers when its in the 20s. Today's start line temp was 23 degrees... thats colder than last week's Route 66 1/2 in Oklahoma. What is even more cray cray is that it was 18 degrees in Nashville- for once its better to be in Ohio than TN.

Eric picks me up at 6:15 to avoid traffic and we managed to park about 1 mile away from start line. As we're sitting in the car, one of my middle school / high school friends, Laura, bangs on the door to say Hi before she picks up her packet. Next year, Eric and I are totally going to do race day pick up vs. fighting the crowds the day before- ridiculous. 

We managed to cycle through bathrooms (no line) and head up the hill to start with 45 min to spare. That much time standing around in the freezing cold is not fun, nor do I plan to arrive this early as there was nothing to do. I did manage to watch the beautiful sunrise....

.... as well as run into my cross country coach of 4 years- Coach Russ (I love running into blasts from the pasts when racing at home) 

Mile 1- 6:45

Despite starting in the first corral (there were 4 this year which included an elite corral, under 30 min), it was crazy congested the first 3/4 of mile and I couldn't have gone faster even if I wanted to due to all the bobbing and weaving.  Unfortunately as I was acquiring satellites I realized my watch developed a mind of its own and changed the settings- I wasn't able to see my pace until a mile was clocked.There was a slight but long down hill toward the end of the first mile. I love downhills, however with the cold it was really prohibiting opening up my stride, so I was starting to get discouraged that I wouldn't be able to beat last year's time since I calculated I was running in the 8s. Unfortunately as I was acquiring satellites I realized my watch developed a mind of its own and changed the settings- I wasn't able to see my pace until a mile was clocked- I was utterly shocked when I saw my first mile time.

Mile 2- 6:41

I do feel like I'm going too fast, but again no idea my pace. There was another downhill in this mile which I tried to coast and then the rest was relatively flat. Field was starting to spread out which made it nice to have a few people in front of me to judge my pace in relation to them. After the 2nd mile I realized I would really have to screw things up not to hit my goal. 

Mile 3 - 7:48 & Mile 4 7:47

I died- the end. I had to stop to tie my shoe (3x this race, mile 3, 4, and 5) and in doing so my legs decided to rebel and would not turnover. We reached the pancake flat out and back part of the course which I always find surprisingly difficult to run on all flat surfaces for longer than a mile (Welcome to Nashville!) It was nice to see all the runners on the back portion, however I kept experiencing that self doubt talk "I want to be taking it 'easy' like some of them, maybe next year I won't try to race it" Despite the thousands of runners, I did manage to spot Eric, he did not return the recognition and didn't respond to my calls. 

Mile 5- (slowest mile) 7:55

Surprisingly we had 2 slow uphills in the last mile- cruel to have 2 downhills at the beginning and then save the hardest mile for last. There was a lot of winding around a driveway until we could finally see the finish line in the distance. Still couldn't turnover very well, so instead of a giant kick I just tried to pick up the pace slightly. There was a girl "racing me" and I wanted to turn to her and say "its okay, i'm in the Dame division, no need to race"... she wouldn't let up, but I think she realized she picked up too soon and I pulled ahead. I crossed the finish line with time of 37:08. Although excited, had I known I was 8 sec from breaking 37 I would have picked it up sooner or maybe only taken 2 tie shoe breaks instead of the 3rd in the last mile. 

I ran back about 400 meters to wait for and cheer on Eric - captured this gem of him getting beat by a youngster ;) 

Ran into Laura while searching for Eric and we all walked the mile back to our cars. No frills, no after party, run and done. 

Later that afternoon I checked the results and I got 3rd in my division... beat out the 4th place girl by 3 sec, wowzas. Last year unbeknownst to me I had placed 4th in my division and only realized it when a month later I received a plaque... I checked the rules and I guess top 5 get awards- doesn't make me feel as special but I'll take it! 

Although there isn't a lot of excitement with this race there a few things that keep bringing me back:

• Oppty to run into people I haven't seen in years- every year I spot a friend and am able to catch up whereas otherwise I wouldn't really have oppty to do so. 
• My brother is willing to do this as well so its a nice brother / sister bonding time to share in the woes and triumphs of the race. 
• I can continually improve. Since I don't race the 5 mile distance, the only races I've done for this distance have been this one. Each year I am able to run faster and its definitely a self-esteem boost to continually see improvement.

I'll be back for 2014 aiming to run low 36s / high 35s. I would say that probably my favorite aspect of this race is that I keep doing it. I can always compete against myself and continually improve each year. I'll be back again for 2014 and will definitely be aiming to run low 36s / high 35s.

Did you race a Turkey Trot this year?