Having run the Bucks County Runners Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheese 4-Miler for the past four years, I was determined to make this year five. It didn't matter that the scratchy throat I've been dealing with since Tuesday made me wake up without a voice. It didn't matter that I ran on Friday and Saturday at less than full steam because of a challenge I made to myself to run at least ten 5ks (or greater distance) every month. It didn't matter that it was 31 degrees but felt much closer to 20. At least the sun was shining and I was determined to do it.
The course is the same. We start with the spiral of death to help us spread out. At the 1.1 mile mark we hop on the towpath at Washington Crossing State Park in Pennsylvania and run a little over 2.6 miles before we turn around. The fast people passed me at 1.6 miles this year. Don reached the turn around about .05 miles before me. I really slowed down on the last 1.4 miles.
On the plus for this year, it was not muddy.
The line for the tomato soup at the end was long, but the soup was plentiful and delicious. As were the grilled cheese sandwiches, or so I heard.
I enjoyed catching up with Gabrielle.
It was still cold at the finish line, so we headed home to warm up.
Of note this year, the early registrants each got a toasty warm hat. I put mine on after the race so I didn't have any bad race mojo. I needed all the help I could get.
According to my watch, I finished just under a 12-minute mile pace. Certainly not a PR, but respectable given how I was feeling. Fortunately the rest of the day called for spending time under the blanket with the fireplace on blogging about adventures.
No comments:
Post a Comment