Dare Run Share: 2014 Caldwell Classic 5K

On Saturday, my family and I ran the Caldwell Classic 5K, a race at our kids' school. This is the third year we have run this race. It is not chip-timed, and it has the most varied terrain of any race I've ever run. We start in the school parking lot and run two loops around the campus across grass, big gravel, sand, mud/dirt, the track, and eventually finish on the football field.

Cold weather has come early to our area, so the race started with temperatures around 28 degrees, with a pretty cold wind. At least the sun was out, and the race didn't begin until 9am, so it was a few degrees warmer than it would have been if the race started earlier.

Unlike last year, I did not warm up at all. We lined up at the start, shared a prayer, and began the race. This event draws speedy runners from the cross country team, recreational runners, students who don't typically run (so they do a sprint/walk thing), and walkers. I didn't go into this race expecting a PR. I didn't look up my Garmin time from last year, but I imagined I ran the race in about 35 minutes last year, and figured I would be about 37 minutes this year, based on my diminished training, and the few extra pounds I'm carrying around.

I didn't look at my Garmin at all during the race (as it was buried under my layers), but I put forth what felt like a decent effort. I don't think I could have gone much faster, and thought I might be pushing it a little faster than my original goal.

I crossed the finish line, found my Garmin, and stopped it - 37:54. Still under 38 minutes, but slower than I thought, based on how I felt. I was even more disappointed when I got home and looked up my time from last year for this race: 34:20, which is only 13 seconds over my 5K PR. This race showed me that I have really lost fitness this past year, and I need to work on getting it back, and losing weight as well.

On the plus side, my husband was the fastest adult (the school gives awards to the fastest middle school student, high school student, and adult, for both males and females). He won a $50 Home Depot gift card, and enjoyed telling everyone he was the "fastest geezer." The race had free pizza and ice cream afterwards. The kids enjoyed some pizza, and even though it smelled great, I didn't have any. I abstained from the free ice cream as well, though that wasn't as big of a temptation, given the temperature.

On another note, I recevied an email from Marathon Photo with a pretty good deal on downloads from the Women's Half that Megan and I ran in September. Since it was her first half, and we had a few good pictures, I wanted to get some of them. My favorite is this one in front of the Parthenon.