April 23, 2013

Red Hot Run 5K Recap

Last night the local running store, Charm City Run in Baltimore, held a Boston Strong run .  We all wore yellow and blue ribbons and went for a great 3.5 miles along the inner harbor to the Baltimore World Trade Center and back to the store. Most people were wearing Boston team shirts or yellow and blue.  It felt great to be part of a such a strong running community.  



By the way, I found Betty Lou's snacks via twitter and sampled one of their cherry gluten free fruit bars the other day. It was amazing and even my boyfriend tried it and said it tasted just like cherry pie! 


BettyLouGlutenFreeBar

If you are looking for a new sweet snack, check them out online or on facebook! Their snacks contain no wheat, refined sugars, genetically modified ingredients, or hydrogenated oils! 

Finally here's a promised recap of a really awesome 5K I ran a week or so ago. I was itching to do another short race post Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, before the Nike Women's DC half (this weekend!).  I saw there was a local 5K benefiting a school just a few minutes away so I registered online.  I woke up, got dressed and realized I forgot my Garmin. Yikes, I really like having my Garmin for 5Ks to help pace myself but looks like I was doing this race without it.  

The Red Hot Run 5K was a local race and was really small with a little over 200 runners in the 5K, not counting the kids 1 mile fun run.  It was a gorgeous, sunny morning and there was lots of families and kids from the school which made for a nice, happy atmosphere.

I started right in the front of the pack with some really fast guys, who later left me in the dust.  The course went through a wooded neighborhood which was all hills up and down pretty much the whole 5K so it was more challenging than I had expected.  Eventually as I turned the corner from the last hill onto the final (flat!) stretch a spectator yelled out that I was the first girl so far! Even though it's a small race it was still really exciting to hear that so I pushed it until the end.  I ended up PRing by a mere 1 second in 21:21


The refreshments afterwards were awesome and definitely out of the ordinary. There was a local cupcake shop La Cakerie serving about 6 different flavors of cupcakes, bags of pretzels and bananas, and also the school's catering company serving yummy samples of green smoothies and a kale salad. I treated myself to a cookie dough cupcake. I'm usually a red velvet kinda girl, but thought I should try something different after such a great race!

RedHotRun5K_2


I never stay for awards ceremonies because I've never won anything at a race. Baltimore has a lot of fast ladies so this was out of the ordinary to wait around for awards! I was so excited waiting to hear my name called. This guy next to me said I must win races all the time which was flattering, even though I informed him it was very,very untrue. 

They called my name, and I walked down the hill to receive my prize which was a gift certificate for a pair of Brooks running shoes from my local running store. What?!

I already happened to have accumulated 4 pairs of Brooks running shoes in the past couple of years so it's solely what I run in! I had come to this run alone, but it was great having that runners high and having strangers congratulate me on winning, even if I tried to minimize this all to my friends because it's such a small 5K.  


I think I'm going to pick up a new pair of those purple Brooks Ravennas 4 for my upcoming marathon training :)

RedHotRun5K_3


What is your favorite cupcake flavor?

8 comments:

  1. Love love love the hot pink shoes!!Congrats on the PR, a second is a second! Nice work!

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    1. Thanks so much! Yes, neon shoes make me faster haha

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  2. Ah, I was at the CCR run at McHenry Row last night, too!

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    1. Awesome, there was a great group gathered!

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  3. Great race! And congrats on winning a prize. A really great one too! I don't really have a favorite cupcake flavor. Vanilla, maybe.

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    1. Thanks, vanilla is a solid standby choice!

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  4. Awesome! Congrats on the PR and the 1st place finish! I need your training plan (and ability) cause you run so fast! Great job!!

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    1. Thanks so much! I'm not following a training plan right now, but I must be doing okay :)

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