Bruegger's Halloween 5K

Today was the Halloween 5k at Beaver Lake, it's a nature center not too far from my house. I didn't have any grand plans for it, I wanted to try and run a quicker pace than normal, but I felt like there were a few things that were throwing a minor glitch in my plans.

I wondered how crowded the trail would get, it is tight when just two people are on it, so I knew it wouldn't be fast going with a few hundred runners there all at the same time. I've also been dealing with a sore throat and cough this week, not too bad, but enough to be annoying. My friend Insomnia has been hanging around this week too, Friday night I slept a total of 3 hours.

We had a good group running, my sis in law Jeannine (who I do all my races with), my friend Sheila, Mike's Aunt Carol, and her husband Bill (who ran the Boilermaker with us this past summer). J's daughter did the kids Fun Run, which was cute. Some of the kids wore costumes, one kid was decked out as Lance Armstrong, with a bike attached to his legs.

It was cool out, but thankfully not raining, and the sun worked it's way out by the time we made it to the start. Note to self, a surefire way to get the sun to come out, is to leave your sunglasses at home. I was trying out a new pair of Drymax running socks, which I just won in a giveaway from Marcia at Mission Possible. I was psyched, I received 6 different pairs, including some for tennis and hiking, which look nice with my Birkenstocks (what can I say, I'm a fashionista). We wore timing chips, but didn't cross over an activation pad when we started, only at the end, so I'm not sure how our time will be figured out. We all were waiting in a small field, then the gun just went off. Think of a crowd people running along, then coming to a complete stop at the trail head, where we had to funnel down to get onto the trail.

I go to Beaver Lake when I have time to run somewhere other than in my neighborhood, when I bring the kids they love to check out the frog pond, and the exhibits inside the building. There are a bunch of trails of different distances, I also go in the winter for cross country skiing. For the 5k, we ran the Lake Loop, which has boardwalks in some spots, and today they were wet and covered with leaves. Jeannine told me to be careful before we started, with my track record of clumsiness, if someone was going to fall, it would be me. I had a good pace, but at times I felt like it was a video game, trying to pass people while keeping an eye on the ground. I did stumble once on a root, but no biggie. Near the end of mile two, I heard a big rustle of leaves sliding, but I don't think whoever did it wiped out.

It was a quick run, but crowded, and I coughed a few times. After a while I gave up trying to weave around people, and ran next to a guy dressed as Elvis. At the mile 3 marker there were pumpkins lining the trail, with funky carvings, like the Yankees logo. At the end I was happy to see Mike and the kids, then don't usually make it to my runs, so it was great to give them high fives.

The clock said my time was 33 minutes, I think. Not happy with that if it's the case, but I didn't have the best conditions for something quicker. I still had a great time, and love my new shirt. It's long sleeved for once, and I think it makes me look a bit busty. Which isn't a bad thing.