Race Report: Santa Shuffle 2011

Today was the 2011 Santa Shuffle at Eau Claire.   Of course, the day started off weird for me.  First, I got up at the time I usually would to make a 10am run.  Then I promptly got into the shower (!?!?!)  A shower? BEFORE a run?   um, ya.

So, after I made the realization, finished the shower and dried my hair...I headed downstairs to eat before I got dressed...only to suddenly hear my daughters were out of bed.  I figured I could quickly change them and then we could all eat together.   Usually this would be Hubby's role on Saturday morning, but I figured I had time.  Of course, I didn't count on a fight.   That meant I was suddenly running late.  I flew upstairs and got into my race day outfit (thank goodness that I laid it out last night).  Then I grabbed our costumes and headed to the city.

Then there was the parkade.  I think I got the last stall in the underground.   I stood in line for 5 mins only to find out that machine didn't take coins.  Back to the car so I could retrieve my visa.  Then another few mins in line until I could pay.   By the time I ran upstairs, we were really down to the wire. We tore into the bag of goodies and came out looking like this:

(photo courtesy of Mr. JS)

We were registered as a Team.   The Red Menace and his Horned Apostles (Santa and his Reindeer, in case you couldn't figure that out on your own.   I had bought a santa suit (for Mr. L) and antlers for the rest of us.   The runner girls all wore pom pom legwarmers (it's becoming a holiday tradition).  

So the team was the usual suspects (Me, J, and JS) as well as Mr. JS, Mr. L (JS's dad) and a new girl, T.  We made such a handsome team that when we headed outside, a couple of EMTs came over and one asked if we would take a picture with his partner.  Too cute.   Also cute were all of the little kids we could hear whispering is Mr. L was the REAL Santa.   He did make a good runner Santa!

The run itself was just the 5K loop to 14th street and back.   It was pretty uneventful.  I started out running with T, chatting about our kids and then we all ran together for a while.  Just before the turn around, my knee was complaining so I needed to take a quick walk break and J and T got ahead of us, since Mr & Mrs. JS walked with me.   Then it was the last half and we were rocking it.   The temperature was perfect.  We needed to keep an eye out for icy patches but it wasn't too hard since it had been a couple of days since the snowfall and most had melted. 

We finished in 35:14 approx.   Not bad for a tired, shuffly kind of fun run.  In my rush to get into the mall, I totally forgot to put on my Garmin so that time is from Mr JS's iphone.

Me. After.

Also worth noting is the shirt from this race.  I don't have a pic of it, but it is awesome.  Just a red, cotton long sleeve with the race logo of Santa, an elf and a reindeer running.  A nice shirt for lounging around in December.  It wasn't included in the race fee, but I am glad I paid the $15 for it because I am sure I'll get lots of wear out of it.  It MAY be my new favourite race shirt.

I don't know what it is, but I just can't seem to get motivated to RACE a 5k anymore.  5k is almost the minimum distance I run on a training run and I seem to always run them between 31 and 35 mins.  I think I may need to look at signing up for a few more chip timed ones for 2012 so I can see about breaking that 30 min barrier.  I'd also like to train for them to get my endurance to a point where I can run strong for 30 mins straight.  I may need to fire up couch to 5K and re-do the last 3 weeks as a test...