BRRC 5k {Saturday, December 2, 2017}

The 2nd Annual BRRC 5k

Saturday, December 2, 2017 at 7:30"ish" am

-23:52 (7:42 average pace per mile) *with a sad Gabe in the stroller*

-1st in F35-39 AG out of 3

-2nd female out of 9

-9th out of 17 overall

(My 22nd race of the 2017 season)

Last year we (Clint, myself, and a few key helpers - namely Paul!) held the "1st Annual" BRRC 5k on the 1st Saturday in December after discussing the fact that we wanted to run some sort of 5k somewhere in December but we were unable to find one that had a day/location that worked for us.  I mean, what is the logical thing to do if you can't find a race that works with your schedule - make your own, right?!  It happened to be the same day as one of local runners Meg and Merlin Anderson's ABC (Adventures Benefiting Children) Runs, so we decided to use our run as a sort of "extension" of their event and, like them, ask for donations to be given to our local Adopt-A-Family program. After our race, we delivered our money to their post-run gathering at the Adopt-A-Family office and then hung out with their wonderful group for some tasty snacks.

2016 - 1st Annual BRRC 5k (and 10k, actually, as 1 brave soul ran a self-directed 10k!)
*Sadly, our Cowbell-ringing Cow wasn't able to be present to serve as our race starter this year.

We decided to try for a repeat this year - after all, we couldn't accurately call last year's a "1st Annual" anything if we didn't follow it up with a 2nd Annual! We tried to get out the word about the run a little earlier this year (via Facebook, of course) and, once again, asked for people to consider donating to our Adopt-A-Family fund. 

The morning of the race, Clint, Gabe, and I headed out to our race starting location (Tipton Park) around 6:30 to get the course marked and all that jazz.  Who knew, we were the first to arrive on site!

Shortly after we arrived, runners started showing up. I held a very official "race registration" at our vehicle as I sat in the passenger seat, hand-wrote names/numbers in a notebook, collected donations in a bank envelope, and handed out the handmade race numbers Clint and I made Friday night/Saturday morning. Hey, if it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done right?!

Our friends Gary and Jamey volunteered to run a "5k warmup" prior to the start of the race and go out to place our "turn around cone" (a green sand bucket of Gabe's that happened to be in the back of our SUV!) at the 1.55-mile/halfway point. We were running, like we did last year, a simple out-and-back on the trail. It's pretty great - there is a straight shot of 1.55+ miles from Tipton before you hit a road crossing, so our participants wouldn't have to mess with crossing a road!

Official Turn-Around Cone and Turn-Around Cone Placement Crew

While they ran out to place the "cone," I continued to get people signed up for the big show.  Gabe busied himself standing in the drivers' seat, turning the car on and off with the start button and making the windshield wipers go crazy as well as turning the radio on and off, loud and soft. Whatever keeps them occupied, amiright?! "Crazy uncle" Paul also further entertained Gabey by making Snapchat videos of the morning. Thanks, Paul. This may or may not have had the unrelated effect of me signing up for Snapchat later that day just to view the morning's videos. HA!

Oh technology...

Friends Paul and Ryan joined in the fun, even though they didn't plan on running. Ryan brought some "bananas" (cookies shaped like bananas and frosted yellow) and both of them helped out with Official Timing Duties.

Official Officials

We were so excited that Gracie joined her mama (our teammate) Holly-Rae - she was our youngest racer and this was just her SECOND 5k! You GO girl!!!

Mama and her girl

A little after our intended start time of 7:30, we took a pre-race photo before lining up at the very same starting line that we had last year - a crack in the sidewalk on the trail. At least, we THINK it is the same crack. Who knows.

What a crew!

Race director/child wrangling duties had left me a little frazzled and I didn't get a warm-up in. Gabe was less than thrilled to get confined to his stroller after playing around in the car and with his buddy Gracie prior to the race...so I was occupied trying to console/distract him and didn't even end up taking off my non-running leggings (I had a pair of capri-length running pants underneath!) or my SWEATSHIRT. Yeah - I ran a hard-ish 5k in a freakin' sweatshirt. HAHA!! {It's my fav sweatshirt, too, declaring "Kinda wanna go for a run. Kinda wanna stay in bed." Appropriate.}

Paul and/or Ryan shouted out a starting signal and we were off! Some of the boys flew away faster than I could even think about running, and friend and area runner Erin easily took the immediate lead for the females.  Our friend Mike's daughter Kaylie was in second and I was in third. I tried to settle into some sort of groove, but I was feeling cold and rusty and (still) frazzled.

I caught up to Kaylie a bit before the first mile and gave her some words of encouragement.  My first mile clicked off in 7:36 - nowhere near where I want to be (or can be) in a 5k, but given the circumstances of the day (no warmup, too many clothes, out of sorts child, etc.) I figured anything under 8 was just fine - let's just make this as "high-quality of a workout" as possible, Rachel.

As I approached the turnaround, I started seeing our runners coming back down the course after hitting the turnaround themselves (always fun). I cheered for each person as they passed and soon rounded that green bucket myself.  As I continued out on the second half of that second mile, I saw Holly-Rae running with her sweet daughter. Of course, both of them were sporting trademark smiles and Holly-Rae snapped the following picture of me with my boy.

Blue skies - it was truly a beautiful day!

Mile two beeped in 7:47. Gabe let me know that he was really all done with riding in the stroller and began crying. I fired up the trusty Pop See Ko tune and did my best to sing along in a silly, animated voice. This only moderately appeased him.

As we neared the end of the third mile, Clint approached on one of the wooden bridges near Tipton. He gave some encouragement and I basically snorted - this wasn't fast, this wasn't pretty, this was just survival. Oh, and fun?! HA!

Mile three was over in 7:43 - at least it was slightly faster than the second mile and therefore not the slowest mile? Something like that ;).

I picked it up a little more and crossed the finish line in 23:52 - a 7:34 pace for the final 0.1

After we finished, I released Gabe from his shackles and he helped me cheer in more runners.  After Gracie crossed, he was all too eager to play with her - they entertained themselves with the ornaments/AG awards we (myself, Tanya, Amber, and Holly-Rae) had made together the Thursday prior to the race. Believe it or not, they (Gabe :)) only broke one!

Love these two cheesers!

After some cool-down miles for some of the group, we held our awards ceremony. Like last year, our age group awards were some homemade ornaments!

Jamey took Top Overall Finisher honors:

WOOOT!

...and Erin took top overall female:

Nice job, Erin! Also of note - Erin won Unofficial Best Outfit

Some other random shots of award-winners follow (as luck would have it...everyone walked away with an award. How neat is that?! ;))...Seriously, in this group we had a wide variety of age groups represented in a field of only 17 total people:

Congrats, Amber! 1st in the F40-44 division!

Clint got 2nd overall and 1st in the M30-34 AG - Gabe was impressed, as you can see.

All of the girls present at the race - love each of these strong girlies!

A shot of Coach Carol during her second mile (snapped by Holly-Rae)

A shot of Jamey and Clint (who ended up finishing 1-2) by Holly-Rae

 After we cleaned up the area we had taken over between the parking lot and trail and chatted a bit, some of us headed to Coffee Hound in Uptown Normal for some recovery beverages. Gabey and Gracie played and shared a muffin. A-DOR-able!!

Carol and Holly-Rae

My little sweet boy

Buds!

And that's a wrap! What a great morning.  THANK YOU to everyone who came out to enjoy the morning with us - runners, spectators, helpers, donation-givers, coffee drinkers, stroller passenger ;)...everyone made this event a success and so much fun. THANKS, as usual, to Mitch for the privilege of being on the Often Running Racing Team, through which we have met many of the yoo-hoos pictured and described in this report.  Thanks to my teammates, both those who participated in the event and those who simply supported in spirit from afar ;). Thanks to Saucony - full disclosure: while the sweet green Freedoms are most certainly Saucony, the Christmas fair isle leggings are not. Thanks to Coach Clint for being awesome and for all of the help/work in putting this event on. And thanks to Gabey for not running away to find less-crazy parents. Yet.  

Best shoes.