With the picture above I guess I'm starting at the end! After the race we made our way from Prospect Park, where the race was, to Fort Greene where Alex convinced me to get a real tree but that's a different story. The picture above is of me with the tree before we boarded the city bus. To add to that, we weren't the only people hauling a Christmas tree on the bus, just so you know how city folks have to rough it :P
Back to the Jingle Bell Jog. It's the end of the year but Alex and I were itching to sign up for a race. This was pretty much the only short race left so we signed up for it. It seemed like a fun, no pressure 5k to dip our toes into the whole race thing.
That's us looking really pleased with ourselves before the race. The whole atmosphere was great, everyone was dressed up for the most part. There were lots of Santas, candy canes, some elfs, and also reindeer. We decided to dress up modestly and just rock some Santa hats.
We've been following a great guide for training for a half marathon, though we're nowhere ready to run one yet. Since we've been running 5k or more for a few weeks now we thought it was a good distance for start. I'm slow as molasses in January, I can only do somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 minute miles but I'm hoping that over time I'll be able to get faster. My goal for this race was to try and run it in under 30 minutes, which I failed to do. I didn't feel too bad about it though. This race had a large incline and after mile 2 I had a pretty bad side stitch so I had to slow down but I decided I wasn't going to walk at all so I powered through. Eventually there was a downhill so the side stitch eased up and I was able to pick up some speed closer to the finish line.
Above I'm just waiting for the race to start and on the right it's me finishing up the race. Alex and I started in different groups because he's faster than me but it was still fun. I made a special playlist with Christmas music so I had that to enjoy the whole time I was running. Since Alex got done with the race before me he was able to snap my glorious finish :)
After the finish there was water, bagels, apples, and hot chocolate waiting for us! I was pleased with the refreshments and we were both glad that we signed up for this race. As soon as we got home we signed up for our next race! We're going to be doing a 4 mile run in February. I really wanted to do something sooner but with the holidays and our trip to Canada there weren't really any other races for us to do. The next race will also be in Prospect Park, so it will be nice to be more familiar with the course.
Do you like to run? What's your favorite outdoor activity?
No comments