Lake Nona 5k 2018 - Race Recap

Whew! Another 5k in the books. And this one was HOT! HOT! HOT! So, freaking hot. I wish I had thought to take a screenshot of the temperature at start time. I did find this on the Run Nona event page and I would fully agree that the temp was hovering around 89 degrees. Remember though that is not accounting for the "Feels Like" temp. It was stupid hot. We still had a blast though!

We have actually never been out to Lake Nona. We don't have a need really to go that far so this was new to us. It is about a 45 minute drive. Will fell asleep on the way there which is good and bad. Good because he was able to stay up later without getting ridiculous at all. Bad because he doesn't wake up nice usually from naps. It's part of the reason we don't push them with him... but that is another story for another time. We were able to find parking fairly easily. We found out later we were lucky. Some people had to park a couple miles from the start line. Will woke up when we got there and was very quiet as he wasn't a happy camper. Hey. At least there were no tears. It did meant though that he was anti picture for a while. Hence the reason we only have a picture of Kenzie with the Kids Run banner in the background.

We hung out and took a few pictures while we were waiting for the kids' run to start. Will cheered up a bit when we told him he could come in first place for our picture. Then, of course, Kenzie needed her own picture in first place. (Note Kenzie's super adorable new running skirt. I want one in my size.)

It wasn't too long before it was time to line up for the kids' race. Will decided he wanted me to go with him instead of Daddy. Not surprising being that he was still sort of out of it. Kenzie decided to run the 6 and up race rather than the mile. In the grand scheme of things, it was probably better. We haven't been training with her and it was so hot. We told her next year we are going to prepare for it. Kenzie did some stretching before her race. All good runners know some stretching is necessary. She did some walking lunges, squats, side bends, and really uncoordinated jumping jacks. It was quite humorous.

Steven was down near the finish line so I left Kenzie with her age group and told her to stay with the crowd (so crazy to us sometimes how independent she is) and I took my leech Will to his starting line. He was refusing to let go of my hand. The mile runners were sent off and then we lined up with Will. He did pretty well. Eventually I convinced him to let go of my hand and he ran it in. He earned his first real medal and was pretty excited about that.

At the end of his race we sat at the finish line to wait for Kenzie. Steven went back to her starting line to find her. After some confusion, he finally located her group and we waited. There was a 5-6 age group that went before her and then we had to wait for the mile kids to come in. The first place kid finished in 6:30. I wish I could run a 6:30 mile. I was cheering on the little girl booking it at the end (literally the last kid) that finished in 15:40. She still went a mile and she looked so excited when she finished. She was my spirit animal. A 15 minute mile and a 6 minute mile are both still a mile. (That is my mantra sometimes.) Then it was time to watch Kenzie. She did so well and was super proud of her new medal, too.

After the kids' race we found out they were handing out popsicles. And Will finally smiled without any coaxing. He was finally back to the happy Will we usually know. We walked over to the kids' zone for a bit and both kids made these cool spinning art creations. They wanted to jump in the bounce house but it was just too long a line and we knew we would have to line up soon for our own race so we told them maybe later before heading back towards the start line. Both kids apparently required a snack and picked an apple and banana while we waited. Steven lined up closer to the front as he planned to run and I had to line up at the back with the strollers.

Before we knew it, we were off. I tried to run some in the first mile but didn't make it far for two reasons. One, I was behind the walkers so I was in too much traffic to run far before I had to stop. Having a double stroller makes it a lot harder to weave through a crowd. ( In hindsight, I wish I had gotten a jogging double when we had Will but I didn't know then that we would take up running and now we are at the point that pretty soon, Kenzie is going to be running/walking with us at races so we are almost back to just needing a single... which I won't get but I'm definitely not investing in a jogging double.) Back to the second reason why I didn't run much. As I mentioned... stupid hot. The kids collectively weigh almost 90 pounds. Combined with the heat, I wasn't going anywhere in a run for very long. So, I walked. Fast... but I mostly walked. After the first mile, I never even tried a run again. I was booking it and passing people but not as fast as if I could have gotten it together to run. Oh well. Again, a mile is a mile. The kids made friends with another little girl in a stroller (remember her... she comes back into play in a minute) and played Eye Spy with her for a bit before her parents hit a running interval and left us behind. They continued Eye Spy for about a mile. At least they weren't asking me if we were almost done. That started later when they wanted to eat dinner. My splits for the 5k were 16:07, 16:17, 16:25. Told you I booked it. A 16-17 minute mile for a walk isn't too shabby. Finally, at about mile 3 and only .1 from the finish line we saw Steven. He paced at an 11:21 min/mile for the 5k and did really well. Especially for it being so hot. This course was flat and therefore, fast. I was so proud of him. And he wasn't even nauseous like he was after the Watermelon 5k this year. Just after seeing him we ran into our Eye Spy friend again. She remember us and was out of her own stroller heading to the finish line. This made both kids decide they wanted to run the rest of the way. So I let them out and they took off. Which then made me take off behind them. I wasn't prepared but it's always good to run through a finish line. Will was my favorite. There was a left turn right before the finish line but he doesn't yet understand race markers and didn't know. I'm yelling at him to turn and finally he stops, turns around to me, and yells, "I don't know where to turn!" It was so cute. I don't know why. Maybe I was delirious from the heat. But really, he is just adorable. Kenzie came by though and directed him. They finished right ahead of me and were so proud of himself. Will even tried to collect another medal but the people handing them out knew better. When I came through the finish line, the announcer happened to catch my name (it was a chipped race so it is all electronic) and I got an announcement. I don't think I have ever had one before but she said, "Kristen Young! And with a stroller!" I feel like she should have added, "And she barely made it!" Haha! Just kidding. I was tired and so sweaty, but could have gone farther if necessary. Maybe not much farther unless it cooled down some but a little bit. We grabbed water, and cold, wet towels and then found Steven.

We all went back to the Kids' Zone after that to pick up the kids spinning art things as they were dry and the kids were able to finally bounce in the bounce house so they were excited for that. They wanted their faces painted but the line was really long so we told them we would ask Nana to come out to a race with them one day and get it done while we run.

All I wanted was to take a family selfie with all our medals but I had to wait for my crazy family. The kids were hitting a second wind and running laps while Steven chatted on the phone getting football updates since we missed so much with the race. Full disclosure... I might have been periodically checking the UCF score during the race. Now that's talent! A 16:21 average pace, pushing a double stroller, and checking scores all at once. LOL Also, UCF won!!! Yay!

Finally we got our selfie (pictured above) and then decided to pack it up and head out. We were hungry and tired. We also have church tomorrow and then are going to Palatka to celebrate Nana's b-day (Happy Birthday, Nana!!!!) so we wanted to get home and get the kids in bed. We ended up driving all the way back to Apopka and stopping at McDonald's for dinner. Now we are home and the kids are in bed. It was another fun race but it was definitely a long one. We will do it again next year, I'm sure but I'm going to figure out a way to carry ice packs with my waters and some wet towels. Florida Fall is basically just summer in September. No joke. Still worth it. And even better to watch the kids run. So proud of them. =)