Hot Chocolate Hustle 5K

At the start of the Hot Chocolate Hustle 5K it was around 14°, but felt like 1°. I wore a hat, gloves, Oiselle singlet, long sleeved shirt, Oiselle knickers, compression socks and trail shoes. I didn't feel warm at all standing outside, but I knew I would warm up once the race started.

Before the horn went off, I positioned myself near the front of the pack. The only people in front of me were guys. I knew they would create a gap as soon as the race started. Once that gap was made, I ran off to the side of the street to stay out of faster runners way.

It was snowing during the race. The snow was falling fast and hitting me in the face and going into my eyes. With the snow falling, the streets were not plowed. They were covered with a inch of two of fresh powder. Most of us ran on tire tracks on the street. Even running in those tire tracks and with trail shoes, I couldn't get a good grip on the snow. It felt like my feet were sliding all over. But with all of the sliding, I stayed on my feet.

Around a half of mile, three guys passed me. Then around the mile marker a lady ended up going around me. Besides the runners already ahead of me and the four that passed me before the mile marker, no one else passed me during the race.

Over the last mile, the course had a bunch of turns. What I like about the turns is that I get to see who is behind me without turning around. About a mile mile from the finish, I saw a guy getting close to me. I wanted to keep my pace even to stay ahead of him. With .2 miles to go, I could hear the guy coughing behind me. The coughing was getting closer to me. My goal from there was to keep him behind me. I kept thinking that he was going to pass me on the final straight to the finish line. I picked up my pace and held him off. According to the final results, I beat that guy by five seconds.

I finished the Hot Chocolate Hustle 5K in 28:25. Which I think is great when running in slippery, fresh snow. I placed first in my age group of 30-34, was the fifth overall woman and finished 20th out of 70 runners.