Race Report: Kicks and Kisses 5k

Amy and I pre-race

First race report of the year! YAY!

So.  Training has not been going as well as I was hoping it would.  I've been sick a couple times in the past month and, most likely in conjunction, have not been recovering well from my hard efforts.  Very frustrating to say the least.  4:40am wake up calls, working out, 10 hour work days, and taking care of my sons has been pretty challenging.  As my first race of the year neared, I knew I was not at the spot I was last year.  (I had placed 2nd in 2014.)  Looking at the roster of registrants, I knew there was NO WAY that I'd crack the top three with where my fitness was at.  As everyone probably knows by this point, I'm very competitive.  Very.  And so a
new idea formed in my mind last week...Kicks and Kisses has an individual 5k and a team 5k--for the latter, you are tethered together for the entire race.  You must start and finish together.  Philip is in great shape.  He's been constant and consistent with his training.  I was pretty sure that Philip and I could win the Duo Dash. (Plus he's a really good sport and puts up with my crazy running/racing ways.)

I talked to the race director last week to see if we could switch events and luckily he made it happen. (Thank you!) Philip and I were both a little worried that there was the potential for problems...that one of us would say something sassy during the race.  After talking about it, we decided that we were just going to run for fun.  For FUN.  After this decision was made, the pressure was off for both of us.  My husband made me a delicious Valentine's Dinner the night before (chicken risotto!), we watched 'Modern Family", and went to bed early.

We awoke the next morning to a temperature of 12 degrees.  After checking the forecast, I saw that it wouldn't be much better at race time (9:05am for the Duo Dash).  Philip and I layered up knowing full well what was in store for us (frozen fingers and burning lungs--are you jealous yet?!).  We dropped our boys off at Philip's cousin's home and headed into Lincoln.  We got there early enough to secure a good parking spot, which in the Haymarket is generally unheard of.  We picked up our packets and got everything organized for the event.  About five minutes to race time, we left our warm surrounding at Vega for the bitter bite of winter that would be our reality for the next 20ish minutes.  I told Philip to remind me to never run another winter race.  Standing at the starting line, I even told Philip that after this race, I would never run again. (Yeah, right!)  I like running, but hate being cold.  What a wimp.

After the Cupid Chase (which was the solo race) had begun, Philip and our fellow duo dashers got lined up and ready. As the horn blew signaling the start, my tethered partner-in-crime and I ran off.  Now--I must admit that it was rather challenging zig-zagging around the Cupid Chasers.  Philip and I would try to ask people to move by saying "On your left!", but many had ear phones in and couldn't hear us.  This became part of the team challenge of the race for us.  We would come upon a group of runners, and Philip would tell me to go to the left or the right, or whether he wanted me or him to take the lead when we needed to run single file.  I thought that we did an awesome job of working together.

As we looped around the arena, we had a good feeling that we would win the mixed division (male + female).  Right before the final curve, Philip noticed that another mixed team was coming up behind us.  We picked it up and were ready for a fight to the finish.  The other couple didn't push back and we easily won it.

Did my lungs burn and fingers freeze?  Yes.  I felt like garbage.  This is what I get for running almost solely on my treadmill.  Maybe I am making excuses, but it is SO hard to run outside with my littles.  (Plus I just started to watch 'Parenthood' while running.  I'm quickly becoming obsessed with the Bravermans...)  We met back up with my WRN teammate Amy and hung out at Vega until the awards.   I bundled myself back up and drank some hot cocoa to warm myself up.

Will I ever run again? Yes.  Will I sign up for another winter race? Yes.  I apparently never learn.

Big thanks to Zach and Heidi for putting on another stellar even.  If you haven't run any of their events, they are a must.  Complete results to the Cupid Chase and Duo Dash can be found here.

Happy running, friends!