This past Saturday was the Energizer Night Race. Unfortunately, I was a total spaz and forgot to pack my camera! So I couldn't take any photos of the race or the venue. As a result, the photos you see here have been "borrowed" from some other online news articles.
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I was pretty optimistic about the race until the weather decided to take a turn for the worse by spitting down cold rain. Well, to put it nicely, the weather was miserable. The organizers were handing out thin plastic-bag ponchos for people to stay somewhat dry. I had one on, but once I started running, I couldn't stand the plastic flapping in the wind so I took it off. Ack! Chuu-wah!! And on top of that, the first half of the 5k was almost all uphill. It was tough pumping my way up the incline, but I was determined to run the whole thing, so I pushed myself the whole way up and didn't stop. And then came the sweet reward: the downhill! The rest of the race just flew by, as I pretty much just let gravity carry me back down. So while I may have been slower on the uphill, I definitely made up for it in the second half, by forcing my short legs to turnover as fast as they could. hehe.
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Well, in the end, despite the unfortunate conditions, I'm happy to say that I finished strong and earned myself a new PR of 27:07! :) That's about 2 minutes off my previous (and first ever) 5k time! I'm not sure how the unexpected terrain actually affected my time though... I wonder if I would've been faster or slower on a flat surface. Either way, I'm just happy that I finished strong, and that I was able to endure the cold rain. My socks and sneaks were completely soaked cuz I accidentally ran through a giant puddle (yes, even though I was wearing my headlamp to light my way, hehe). I'm sure I looked like a drowned rat by the end of it and my hands were numb from the cold, but I felt awesome and alive!
We also got a goodie bag after the race, which included a finisher's medal and some snackies: a carton of dairy milk and some sort of non-vegan bread. Not so vegan-friendly. There was also a can of black coffee which was probably vegan, but I just took my medal out and handed the rest back. I had brought my own snacks along anyway~
So that was a quick recap of my second official race! I wanted to try a 10k this year, but I don't think that will happen... it will just have to wait til next year. In the meantime, I plan on investing in some winter running gear so that I can continue to run and stay fit. :)