race report: love the run you're with 5k

well...as any other race report will tell you, this race was freaking cold. 23° when I left my house, with a reported windchill factor of 10°. oww. but, apparently not cold enough to make me forgo the $40 I'd plunked down for this race (WHY ARE 5K's SO EXPENSIVE???) by DNSing. so off I went, dressed in every single warm layer I owned, plus a top layer of (pink, Tweety) fleece -- pj pants and hoodie sweatshirt. yes I looked AWESOME. and I was totally not embarrassed by my own self.

ok I was. totally embarrassed. but I was warm!

thank God packet pickup was inside a building (bar). that was totally brilliant and more races need to do that. (do many races do that and I'm just unaware? I've really only raced a few here in DC...)

this is what I actually raced in.

(yes I love Tweety...) the winning article of clothing that day? totally the green "turtle fur" you see around my neck. kept my breath warm when I needed it and settled down lower around my neck when I didn't. and yes I raided my ski bag for this and other articles of clothing for this race. IT WAS 23 DEGREES OUT!

there was lots of pink at this race.

so much that I don't think I stood out at all -- hubby says he can always find me by watching for the pink shirt, but I'm guessing that would have been hard this time. not that he came out in that freezing weather to watch me run 3 lousy miles...

speaking of which? I totally don't respect the 5k distance at all. I'm just such a slut for distance, all I want to do is go longer. sigh. not that I'm any good at this distance -- I am a sloooooooooooow turtle and I even had to walk twice thrice during this race. sadface. also I had NO goals for this race, which was weird. BUT. this race was meant to give me a baseline to beat over the next few months, to encourage me to work on speed-not-distance. goal achieved. (also? another February goal achieved!)

current 5k PR: 35:00. new goal: 30:xx.

now I just need to find me some more 5k's. oh yes, and the money to register for them. ;)