This race was part of the Hot Chocolate Winter Series at NYCRuns and happened on December 21st, 2014.  It’s pretty spiffy.  You run and then get a mug.  This mug was pretty doofy, but I liked the race a lot.  The course was beautiful even though the day itself was butts cold, and did I mention the extremely silly mug?  Seriously, its design was just embarrassing:

Why would anyone put a logo there?  I don’t even.  Also, I have incredibly wrinkled wrists.  What do you do to tone your wrists?

Anyway, the race took place on Roosevelt Island, and as I mentioned, it was so cold.  I got there a little early and hid in the subway station until I couldn’t take it anymore, then I hid in the CVS next to the race start.  While I walked to the starting line, I took my before photo.

The course was around the top half of the island, and was extremely lovely to run.  There weren’t many runners, but that was okay.  I stuck with the same crowd for most of the race.  At one point, at the north end of the island, I passed the lighthouse and got so excited I took a photo while running.

You’d think I’m never going to see Roosevelt Island ever again with the way I was taking photos. Also, note the absence of runners ahead of me.  At this point I had secured my place in the back.

Nick was running late, and somehow managed to magically appear right at the end of the race.  It was pretty convenient.  I needed to see a friendly face to keep going.  I kept on running until the end, and finished just as the 10k was starting.  No pressure or anything.  As Nick and I walked to the car in the unimaginably cold wind, we snapped a photo where I tried to not look creepy and failed.

This is one of my favorite races to date–I loved the atmosphere, I loved the course and I really loved that I ran my fastest time yet.  Booyah!

Race Stats

Total Distance: 3.24 mi

Total Time: 40:09 min

Pace: 12:23 min/mi (14 seconds faster than last time!!)

Place: 366/405

On the 13th of December, my racing obsession gave to me: One uphill race.  This was an upstate run that raised money for families hit by arthritis.  They had a lot of young members there talking about their struggles, and it was really touching to see so many people rally together to help them out.  It was a pretty beautiful day–especially when we took our pre-race photo:

This was one of several normal-looking photos.  I think it shows best how fun racing is.  I got a surprise when we picked up our packets–I had a crazy low number.

I’ve never been lower than 100 before–I was pretty confused and excited.  It caused me to do one of two things: I started looking for numbers fifteen and seventeen (which I found and got too loud about), and it convinced me there were about eight people running.

The course was around the perimeter of Purchase College, which had one million hills–it literally felt like I was running uphill the whole time (there was a downhill really early on in the race, but that doesn’t count).  The really cool part was that they gave out jingle bells for the runners to put on their shoes, so I got to hear that the whole way to the finish line.  The whole way.

This is the first race I’ve run where I was separated by pace at the start.  I usually try to stand towards the back anyway, or off to the side to let faster runners pass.  I’ve got to say, it didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.  All the fast runners passed me anyway, and anyone I would have normally passed, I quickly passed.  It was significantly more organized that the giant blob moving at once.

After the race, we took our photo:

I was really hot at this point due to global warming–and after, we happily got lunch.  Oh!  And before we left, I saw these really awesome runner statues!

It was a really cool thing to see after a race.  Even though the last one looks like he’s about to fall.

Race Stats

Distance: 3.15 miles

Total Time: 39:41 min.

Pace: 12:37 min/mi (Two seconds faster than last time!)

Place: 271/340