Jingle Bell Run 5k

I am home from my girls weekend in Sandpoint.  We had a great time!!

When I woke up yesterday morning I was starting to regret signing up for this to be my first 5k to run.  We had got several inches of snow and there was a lot of ice on the ground! 

I wasn’t sure what to wear so I wore a tank top, long sleeved sport tech shirt and then a 1/4 zip fleece sweatshirt from Goodwill.  I bought the sweatshirt just for the event, so that if I got too hot I could take it off and leave it on the track. 

When I got in the car the temp was 22 degrees!  It was COLD!  I followed my friend Lyndsey down there and then met up with my other friend, Jodie.  Jodie was also running her first 5k so we met up for moral support.  I’ll admit when I was walking to meet her I thought about turning around and not doing it, nobody would know.  But instead I kept walking.

Thankfully Jodie brought an extra pair of Yak Trax for me.  I was very nervous about running on the snow and ice and this calmed my fears.  They ended up being a huge life saver!

There were tons of people down there.  We got in line towards the back and after they said go it took us a few minutest to pass the start line. 
Jodie and I started together and jogged next to one another for about a half mile.  We had to weave in and out of people which was a bit frustrating.  Eventually I ended up jogging ahead of her.
The one and only sign that I saw on the run was the 2km sign.  When I saw it I was quite disappointed.  I thought for sure I had been jogging for longer than that.  So not much after that sign it got really crowded and the trail narrowed.  I had no where to go so I had to stop running and do a fast walk until it was clear again.  I actually needed that minute or less to reenergize.  There were quite a few small hills along the course and I walked up one of them.  I walked a total of 3 times for about a minute each time.  I was a little disappointed for walking at first but am now ok with it.  About a mile from the finish line I started getting hot.  I had already pinned my number to my sweatshirt so I didn’t want to ditch it and mess with the pins.  So I just tied it around my waist and it wasn’t bad at all.
I crossed the finish line at 43:45.  I was hoping to finish under 45 min so I was pleased with my time!  I waited at the finish line because I knew Jodie wasn’t too far behind me.  I cheered her on as she crossed.  We had someone take our picture with her phone since mine was dying and I didn’t take a camera.  Once I get the pic, I’ll add it. 
I was so proud of myself for sticking with it and accomplishing my goal, through snow, ice and below freezing temps!  Adrenaline and the other runners definitely kept me going through some of it.  It feels good to say that I’ve run a 5k (even though I walked a few min). 

My muscles are a little sore today but not as bad as I was expecting.  According to my bodybugg, I burned 796 calories during the race.  Not too bad!  I wore my bugg until about 4pm and then took it off since I was on "vacation".  For the entire day I burned exactly 3000 calories.  I love being able to see what I've done.