The Tater Trot 10k: 1st & 2nd Place!

Good (early) morning to a freezing dash from the warm car to the race sign-in!  I arrived about an hour before the race time, and was the 3rd person there (generally an hour before the race there is a line for packet pick-up).  The race director had been receiving calls all morning with people questioning the validity of the race... was it still going even with the TERRIBLE weather?

The director asked me and my carpool partner if we would like to drop from the 10k to the 5k distance for sanity reasons.  We both, emphatically, declared we'd run the longer distance.  During warmups, my eyes were teared up from the cold.  OUCH.

The race started well, and about 15 minutes in, the sun came peeking out to disperse some of the rain, and I shed my jacket.  To save running time, I didn't tie it around my waste, but threw it on a nearby fence for pickup on the returning lap.  DISASTROUS idea.  Within five minutes, the sun was gone, and I was regretting my un-layering decision.  Seriously dumb.

Nonetheless, I pushed on as best I could, and even mustered an extended mile-long sprint the last mile of the race.  My return leg was a good three minutes shorter than my starting leg.  That means, all other miles ran at the same pace, I about halfed the time for my last mile.  

I finished the total 6.2 miles in 51:37.  Definitely not my PR, but considering 15mph headwinds, I was pretty proud of myself.  Goodness, I was proud of myself when I woke up to drive to the race on time!

FIRST in my age group

SECOND overall women

FOURTH overall

Awards ceremony: trophies were a bag of Klondike potatoes, and an emblem on a strip of burlap!  By the time I went up for collections, they'd run out.  My sad face at being denied my bag of victory potatoes below: