Hot Chocolate 5k

On November 3rd I ran the Hot Chocolate 5k that I trained for over the course of 8 weeks.  My sister, Chelsea, Luke, and I all ran it together.  Well, I say together loosely because Luke was about a mile ahead of Chels and I.  Our only real goal was to run the entire thing without stopping to walk and we accomplished that.  The race was set up near Principal Park in Des Moines alongside a river (that was empty near us and giving off a horrible stench).

It was really fun to actually run with PEOPLE.  I've been running by myself for so long that it felt like a special treat.  I finished the race 25th out of 55 in my age group.  I was pretty proud of Luke who finished 31st overall out of about 500.  He barely even trained - he's just that good. ;)

After the race we had a glass of victory hot chocolate and immediately drove back to Oakmoor where I was playing in a racquetball tournament.  I played in the finals of my Women's B division and got 2nd.  I don't like to make excuses, but I am wondering if I would have won if I hadn't run a 5k directly before.  Coulda, shoulda, woulda - no regrets.

I'm very happy and proud of myself and my sister that we did the entire 8-weeks of training and ran this 5k together.  We went from non-runners to 5ker's.  Some weeks were hard and it was quite difficult to get our training in.  Other weeks we had to do extra training to make up for times we weren't able to run the week before.  I have much more endurance and all the running has greatly improved my racquetball game.  Although right now I am on a bit of a running break, I fully plan on running more 5k's in the future.  

To my friends and family, thanks for following this journey of mine and being an encouragement to me and Chels.

Enjoying victory hot chocolates post-race.
(Luke and I are wearing the fleeces we received for participating in the 5k.)