It’s difficult to write a race report for a 5K. Or at least one with much substance. 5Ks are short!

I had too many things stacked against me to have the race I had planned on. When you add sporadic running in the two weeks prior to an order from my ortho to not run for two weeks, you do not get a 25:00 5K. Nope, that math just doesn’t work.

I have also turned into a sissy when it comes to cold weather running. Brrr. I whined more than usual the morning of the race.

I threw on some capris and a new long sleeve shirt from Old Navy. After the race, I promptly ordered two more. I almost didn’t need gloves because the thumb holes and long sleeves almost covered my whole hand. Bonus…they are seamless too!

Runner Boy had agreed to pace me when I was going to run fast, but he told me he would stay with me even with my modified plan. He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him to just keep me around a 9:00 pace. A 28:00 5k would be completely respectable at my current training pace and fitness level.

We took off together as a family. Mr. Neon was planning on running comfortably hard, so I knew he would get out in front of us quickly. Neither one of us have run very many stand-alone 5Ks lately, so neither one of us have very good PRs to gauge our fitness level from.

Runner Boy is already checking his Garmin. Ha. Tiny Boy tried really hard to stay with us, but that kid just wanted to run fast.

I had my headphones in and had made a playlist that was 28 minutes long, but quickly turned the iPod off. Runner Boy was babbling away at me. He told me that he could jabber to distract me, but if I needed him to be quiet to tell him.

Mile 1 = 9:04. Easy does it. I kept waiting for the pressure sensation in my leg to start, but I think it was just too darn cold for me to feel anything. Runner Boy asked me after the first mile how I felt. I told him we could pick it up a little. He said, “Ok. Let’s give 8:45 a try.” He’s such a good pacer.

Mile 2 = 8:44. See…good pacer! My leg started to feel a little off, but my cardio felt so good that I told Runner Boy to pick it up just a tiny bit more.

Mile 3 = 8:36. I told Runner Boy to go ahead and run the chute fast. He beat me by 10 seconds…crazy sprint, kid. Tiny Boy beat us by a good 30 seconds, which was nice for him because he came in first in his and Runner Boy’s age group. I love the little wings on their hats flying.

My overall time was 26:54 (8:41 pace). My previous PR was 27:19. WHAT?! I didn’t think at any point in this race that I could have PR’ed. My brain just wasn’t working at figuring paces. Of course now I wonder what I could do when my leg is feeling 100%. FINALLY! A finisher pic with my pony tail flying!

Mr. Neon PR’ed as well with a 24:22. 7:50 pace! However, I’m certain he could run substantially faster. It’s hard when you’ve been training for such long distances to run FAST for a short distance. I think we are both looking forward to focusing on short course triathlon, 5Ks, and 10Ks in 2017.

My Ironman. His finish line pictures always make my heart go pitter patter. I love him!

Stay neon, kids! Get ready to share those 2017 goals. I’m working on mine!