Race Report: Holiday Run at Sharon Woods

The finisher's medal and shirt (wrinkly from being crammed in my bag)

The Holiday Run at Sharon Woods in Westerville was just a teeny, tiny bit cold and rainy. But, when you knowingly sign up for a run on Dec. 12 in Ohio, you don't have much room to complain about bad weather.

With that said, it was an awesome time -- both in terms of me having an awesome time, and me running an awesome time.

If you're keeping track, that's three races in three weeks. I wasn't going to take this one very fast. Note the word "wasn't". The short of it: 4 miles in 34:45 -- that's an 8:41 pace, my second fastest! I was 98/245 overall and 5/12 in my age group.

Except for a quarter mile in kickboxing I haven't run since the Salt Fork 10-mile trail challenge Dec. 4. Been trying to shake it up a bit and give my legs a break at the same time. So, I didn't really know how I'd do today.

At 9 am the weather hadn't turned horrible yet. It was cold and raining but not snowy. I wore my LL Bean running tights, athletic pants, my tech shirt and my lined rain jacket.

I really only ran this one for the long-sleeved tech shirt, thus my mission was accomplished once I arrived and signed in. I got there at 8:20ish and warmed up with Bill, who I know from an online message board, I'll get to that in a bit.

There were a few crazies in singlets and shorts up front but most of the 245-runner field took their time getting to the start. Then a handful of people with balloons on sticks come out, pacers! I've never done a race with pacers before so this made me excited.

I lined up behind the 10:00 mile pacer and vowed to follow her for at least the first mile. A quarter mile in I was cold and bored so I kicked it up. I spent the rest of the race catching up to the 9:00 balloon, finishing right behind him.

But, as it turns out he was running a little too fast. He apologized for it, no problem at all, I say, no problem at all!

The course was a beautiful 4-mile loop through Sharon Woods. After the Salt Fork run last week I didn't even notice the hills, we got to one and a lot of runners were slowing down, huffing and puffing. I kept my pace without a problem.

I finished just as the rain was turning to snow, perfect timing. I met up with Bill and Karen who I know from a Columbus - health related message board. We went out to brunch after which was a good time.

After the first quarter mile I didn't really notice the cold until after I finished. I was completely soaked.

I'm not running again until Saturday. It's going to be a busy week though. Work is going to be interesting with the census data coming out. I'm going to Fleet Feet's Marathon in Training info meeting Monday night and hopefully their Race without a Race Thursday. Then MIT starts Saturday!

I haven't been to eager to try Zumba, but a couple of people have recommended one instructor's class at the Y on Tuesday or Wednesday so I'm going to try and make that too!

Yow, my race tracker has my next race listed as the Cleveland Marathon! I'll probably do a few in between, I'll figure that out later this week. I think I also want to reorganize my race results page to list my runs by pace.

For now, a task way more harrowing than a wintertime 4-mile run... a trip to Kroger two weeks before Christmas in a snowstorm :-o