Hot Chocolate Hustle 5K

I ran the Hot Chocolate 5K on Saturday morning. When I was leaving the house to drive to the event, it started snowing. The snow would continue during the race and for part of the day. The snow later stopped and turned to rain. Not very good conditions to run in.

The snow was falling fast and starting to pile up. I wore my trail shoes to help give me traction. Some other runners just wore regular shoes. Some had Yaxtrax on too. When the race started, I was trying to stay in the front. Running through mounds of snow wasn't helping me too much. It was bulky and and couldn't get much traction.

After crossing the first mile, I could hear people behind me. Most of them were guys. A few ladies passed me too. I know they were having trouble running in the snow too, but it looked like they weren't having any difficulties. It seemed that I could never pick the right path to run on. I was following tire tracks in the snow and so did others. That seemed more slippery to me. Then I would run on fresh snow and it seemed like my feet were cement blocks. It was just a no-win situation.

I was running side-by-side with another lady for the last mile. It is so rare that I actually run with people. We didn't talk, just ran together. She started to pull away, then I would track her down and end up side-by-side again. With less then a half mile to go, I ran up behind her again. It seemed like she was slowing down, so I went around her. We made a right hand turn to do a short loop around a neighborhood block before running into the finish line. These streets weren't plowed and the snow was deep. I was able to keep the lady behind me until we made the final left turn to lead us straight to the finish line. I wasn't able to keep any footing in the deep snow and I couldn't chase her down one final time. I finished in 31:04 and placed first in my age group.

This race was difficult. The snow was about 1-2 inches deep and slowed everyone down. Can't wait until the snow is gone and our times are faster. That is when racing is the best.