5K Recap: Running with an Elephant

And a blogging buddy (who's definitely NOT an elephant!)

Saturday morning’s Race for the Trees 5K started bright and early with a clear blue sky, temps in the high 60s, and a nice breeze.

Two days before, Hubs and I stopped in to Track Shack to pick up these.....

 and of course, while there, we couldn’t resist picking up a thing or two…..

Hubs recently saw someone wearing compression socks and decided he’d like to try a pair. His shins give him great trouble when he walks, so compression sleeves turned out to be his choice on this visit.

While he looked at sleeves, I looked at socks. I love socks, especially pink ones, and had recently read about the Injinji socks, which have individual toe sleeves.  Kind of like mittens for your feet.  Nice! I decided to try a pair, with a recommendation from Betsy, Track Shack's co-owner. 

Snuggly!  Like 10 little hugs ~ all at the same time!

Later that evening, as we watched TV and I tried out my new ‘feet mittens,’ something happened…. Sneeze.  Nose running. Sneeze. Nose running. Sniffle. Cough.

Uh – oh.  Not a good sign.

By Friday morning, I was full-on in headcold mode: itchy, watery eyes, sneezing, sore throat, body aches.  Not good. 

A trip to the drug store at lunchtime produced a few meds to hide the symptoms. Can’t take much being diabetic, but took what I’m allowed.  Aaahhhh…. Some relief.

Saturday morning arrived and I was feeling pretty craptastic, but really wanted to meet up with the local blogging crowd. Hubs, being the good sport that he is (5Ks are not his way to spend a Saturday morning!), donned his walking gear, and we headed over to meet up with Lauren from Bananas and Toast and Morgan from CAUTION: Redhead Running, fresh from her Boston 5K, in which she PR’d. As soon as we arrived, we saw Morgan with a friend, who turned out to be Aimless Runner.

After quick introductions and the prerequisite (2) trips to the bathroom (no porta potties today… we had the real thing, sans lights!), we headed toward the starting line.  The Redhead and Aimless Runner were planning a “Duel to the Death” and moved to the front of the pack. Lauren, Hubs, and I took our places toward the back.  Lauren, who's usually a middle of the pack runner with a brisk pace, is dealing with IT band issues right now. Ouch. And well, Hubs is a walker and I’m a turtle runner with a nasty cold and pretty sure there's  a baby elephant sitting on my chest.

The race began and the three of us shuffled across the starting line. Within two minutes, Lauren and I decided to pick it up to a very slow run and off we went, with a wave from Hubs shouting, “Have a good run!”

The course was beautiful, criss-crossing through the tree-lined streets of Winter Park. The homes are exquisite with manicured lawns, very old trees, and friendly neighbors. Several sat outside near the road to cheer us on, and one family even set up a mimosas stand (w/out the alcohol, of course!). We thanked the neighbors for their hospitality. They thanked us for running and providing them with trees.

There were approximately 1,100 runners at $20/registration = $22,000.oo dollars raised to provide community trees. Many trees were lost after the trifecta hurricane season of 2005, so this race is for a very good cause every year.

More than once, I commented to Lauren that I felt like a baby elephant was sitting on my chest, and if only I could breathe how great that would be! With my current state of “yuck," and lack of recent training due to the infamous orthotic boot, and Lauren’s IT band issues, this event was more about socializing than all-out racing.  And socializing we did.

For the first time ever, I did something I’ve never done: Ran an entire race with another runner. Lauren and I chatted it up as we jaunted along for the 3.1 miles. It’s amazing how much you can learn about a person in 5K!  At one point, we even discussed our race day dialogue:

She: “I’m really glad you like to run and talk. Most people don’t like to talk when we run.”

Me: “Honestly, I usually run alone and don’t talk with anyone. I’m afraid I’ll have a heart attack if I try to talk!””

She: “Oh.”

Me: “But you keep right on talking. I’ll talk when I can.”

And so it went. We each contributed to the convo and I think I held my own reasonably well. It was funny for me, though, because this was definitely a new experience, talking and running (and some walking)!

In that last 1.5 miles, we entered private property that’s only open to the public once a year for this race, and it was beautiful! Old oak trees lined the dirt path and peacocks strutted and hollered as we passed through.  We stopped for two quick pictures ......

As we exited the property, we had the pleasure of saying good morning to a gentile woman, apparently the owner of the property… she was lovely with her beautiful hat and warm smile.

 

We also met up with the Dueling Duo who had long-since finished the 5K and were waiting for us; the Redhead and the Aimless Runner cheered for us and ran to the finish line (again!) with us.

And in our gimpy, sickly, and untrained state, we crossed the finish line in 42:19 minutes, a little sweaty, definitely not out of energy, but feeling like we had accomplished a small task for the weekend: a few miles for a good cause and toward our individual goals. Average pace: 13:35/mile. Wow! Slowest pace EVER for either of us!

A few more pictures to document this bloggy meet-up, a round of hugs to new friends, introductions with yet another local blogger, Kitzzy, and I headed back out to catch up with Hubs.

Lauren, Morgan, Harold

Robin, Lauren, Morgan

A short while later, Hubs and I came across the finish line and headed to the bus. The race, with a point to point course,  required runners to be returned to the starting area via shuttle.  So of course, while waiting in line, we met more 5K locals ...

Hopped on the bus, headed back to the starting point, selected our cute baby trees that we had earned for completing the race, and showed off our armpockets one last time. 

A short time later, we were home, where I promptly climbed into bed and didn't come out 'til Sunday afternoon, glad to have done the race and met up with friends, but definitely paying the price ..... Germs, PLEASE go away!!

P.S. ~ My 10 little toes were hugged for 3.1 little miles... the Injinji socks were awesome!!

Happy running, friends,

Robin