To start, my mom came into town on Friday to help us out for this one. She watched the kiddos for us while we went to the race. We were up bright and early to head out to Winter Park for the race. We were not super excited to see the car read the temp as 44 degrees on the way over but at least it wasn't earlier in the week when the temp was in the 20s. I think I would have forfeited the money and sat that one out. Ugh. I could not run in a northern state. Props to those people. They think we are crazy for running in the heat of the summer but I think they are crazy for running in the snow. Haha!
When we got to the race, we ended up sitting in the car for a while because it was quite chilly. Eventually we headed to the start line. We made it just in time and only had to wait about 5 minutes before the national anthem was played by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. One cool thing about this race was that you could try to "Beat Beethoven." The Orchestra was going to play Beethoven's 5th Symphony starting at the gun when the race started and if you finished the race before they finished playing (approximately 32 minutes) you would be given a special pin. Soooo... Steven is almost fast enough to hit that but I'm no where near. Plus, it is from the start of the race so we would have to be at the very front to even consider it. That means we elected to not even worry about that challenge.
We set off on the 3.1 mile course which was similar to the Watermelon 5k course in reverse. Honestly, the first mile was pretty rough for me. Steven was fine but I had a harder time. I haven't run much in the last month and a half or so between it being cold and being sick off an on over that time. And with it being cold, my nose was running making me breathe even more through my mouth (which I do mostly anyway when I run) which made my throat hurt. Oh well. Just means I need to train more for the next race. We ran the entire first mile which is usually our goal. We did it in about 11:30, I think which is slow for Steven but about average for me lately. At that point we walked/ran for the remaining 2.1 miles. I like having Steven choose to run with me instead of ahead of me somewhere because it gives me a person to encourage me. He also tends to pull ahead of me some during running intervals which means I run a bit faster than I might without him as I'm constantly trying to catch him. Haha!
We ended up finishing the 5k in just under 40 minutes. A bit slower than Steven probably would have liked, but I do enjoy having the time spent running with him like I said earlier and I like to think he enjoys hanging out with me. We didn't Beat Beethoven which we knew would be the case but the race was fun. This was the first year this race had a medal, too which was pretty cool. It was actually a pretty large medal.
Then we stood in line to grab some Tijuana Flats chips and queso with our first tasting coupon. We initially planned to get the bbq from Pig Floyds too but the line was so long and we didn't feel like waiting so we grabbed our donuts and then decided to head out.
We had plans anyway to hit up The Coop which is our favorite post race breakfast place. Steven got the chicken and waffles and I had the Winter Park breakfast which was eggs, grits, and cornbread. I added bacon to because... well... bacon. I always love getting breakfast with Steven after races. Just a bit more time to hang out together without kids. We are a strange couple to some, I bet. We don't do date nights. We run races and get breakfast.
Our next race is in February at the Run 4 Love 4 mile with Track Shack. For this one we are considering having my mom come with us along with the kids. While I won't be pushing them for this race, my mom and the kiddos will hang out at the race finish and wait for us so they can run the Kids' Race after our race. We are also working on figuring out if Kenzie would like to run the Smile Mile. This is a kids only race through Track Shack. For Kenzie's age, she would only run 1/2 mile and we are working on her with training right now to see if she wants to do it. She would have to run alone without us but it is only around a park so we could hang out at various points around the course to cheer her on. She ran with Steven yesterday and did .1 without stopping but then only had to walk for short periods of time before she was running again. She averaged just under a 15 minute pace so it would probably take her around 7:30 to finish. Not too bad. We have just over a month to work with her and determine if she wants to do it. She wants to do a 5k so this is a fun start for her. Even she is catching the running bug.
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