Race Report: Race for the Grasshopper 5K

I woke up to extremely cold temperatures...well for upstate South Carolina. It was about 19° but felt like 9° according to the local news channel. Brr..I was prepared for this race to suck. I told myself, no sense on trying for a PR, it's too cold and with so many layers on, highly unlikely. I arrived at the Battlefield around 9:00am, an hour before race time, picked up my packet and sit in my car for about 30 mins trying to stay warm. At 9:30 I started my pre-race ritual and at 9:50am, jogged my way to the starting line. It was cold standing their waiting for the gun to go off even though it was only for about 5 mins.

Runners, ready set...bang! And we were off! At a very fast pace too. At the 1/2 mile mark, I glanced down at my watch and saw I was going an 8:30 pace...wow! I never run that fast unless I'm doing speed work, so I decided I better slow my pace down to 9:30 if I want to finish this race strong. I also noticed how quickly I warmed up and was so glad I shed those top layers I had on during my warm up jog. I would of been way too hot if I kept them on. At 22° with a real feel at 17° at the start, it's hard not to overdress but glad I resisted the temptation to layer more than I did.

At mile 1, I was feeling pretty good but my legs were a starting to get tired from going out too fast. I wanted to maintain a 10:00 pace but I was slowing down to more like a 10:30 pace but still managed to do a 9:30 first mile.

At mile 2, my split was 20:21. About 90 secs faster than I expected to be at this point so I just continued on with a 10:30 pace, taking 30 sec walk breaks when needed which was only two. Around 2.8 miles, I decided to give it that final push, knowing the end was near. It was a downhill then an uphill the final tenth of a mile. Once I could see the clock and watched as it went from 31:59 to 32:00, I knew I had a PR and was really able to savor those final yards and finished in 32:25...about 90 secs faster than my previous PR of 33:57.

At the finish, they had apple slices, bananas and coffee although I really wish they had hot chocolate as I'm not a coffee drinker.

It felt great to finish this race. In the cold and with two layers on and still able to PR! Although I wasn't sure if I would win a "grasshopper" (a cannon), I thought I may have a slim chance but wasn't sure so I stuck around to find out.

At 11:30, they finally tallied up the results. It felt like forever standing out in the cold for so long and not really moving much. I was tempted to just forget it and leave but I didn't. To my surprise, I came in 3rd in my age group. This is my first age group award and a new personal record so I was ecstatic! So despite it being so dang on cold, it was a great race! I can't wait for next year...I just hope it's a bit warmer.