2013 HOHO 5K RACE REPORT

Running through the neighborhoods in 18 degrees. Isn't this fun buddy?!?

This race kind of snuck up on me. Libbie and I had talked about doing it but both of us neglected to register until a few days before the race. When I went to register, I noticed kids were only $8. I was supposed to hang out with Brandon on Sunday and the race was a later start (10am) so having him tag along wouldn't be an issue. Hmmm, idea forming!

So much to Brandon's surprise he was running a 5k Sunday morning! When I told him on Thursday he moaned for a second but then just kind of accepted it. I told him it was only 3.1 miles like the last race he did and that seemed to help a lot. He thinks I am going to sign him up for a half marathon or something, haha. Right after I picked him up he was asking about his time on the last race and made it his goal to beat that time. So he ended up getting into it!

Oregon, and really the entire nation, has been in a cold snap recently, so the temperature at race time was 18(!) degrees. Holy crap! Once the three of us got our bibs we huddled back in the car and tried to stay warm. Last year it was 42 degrees and in my blog post about it I was complaining about it being chilly. Sounds downright balmy at the moment! I ended up running with a fairly heavy winter coat on since I'd be running slower with Brandon.

We call this the "walk break."

The race went really well. We got out of the car at 9:55 and were at the start line for the 10am start. Santa was there again in his Sleighburu to lead us on the race. The course was the same as last year, so flat in the park for about a quarter mile and then up that big hill. I told Brandon we could run to the hill and then walk it and that's exactly what we did. Once we hit the top we started running through the neighborhoods.

Brandon needed to walk a little bit less than last summer but we still took our fair share of walking breaks. Most breaks we'd take just thirty seconds and then start running again. Other times we'd use cones or trees as markers to either start or stop running. I never let us walk for more than about 40 seconds and we had sustained running periods of two minutes or so. I didn't want to kill him but I also wanted to make sure we challenged ourselves.

He did a pretty good job pacing himself and even ran farther than I thought he could in certain spots. At one time he starting bombing up a mini hill in the park but I just let him go. By the time I trotted up it responsibly he had caught his breath and kept running. I was super proud of him the whole time and kept shouting encouraging things.

Eventually we wound our way to the finish line and he took off like a bat out of hell once I challenged him to beat a six year old girl in a pink coat that was about 50 feet ahead of us. He ended up beating her by a good 60 yards (seriously though, freaking awesome time for that girl for her age!). He was tired at the end but not nearly as drained as the summer race, although that was in the heat. Brandon seemed to have a fun time and I am glad we brought him!

Hot cider at the finish line!

This course is short though. Somehow I convinced myself last year that it really was 3.11 miles, that my GPS lost me in the woods and cut corners on me. No. Last year I clocked it at 2.92 and this year 2.91. When I got home I painstakingly traced our route by hand and it came up with 2.9114. Brandon was faster than July, but not four minutes faster (gun time was 32:49 compared to 36:49 before).

I decided to adjust our time for the 5k distance. When he does a 5k next summer (shhh) I want his PR to be beatable, so comparing himself against a 2.9 mile long course wouldn't be fair. Taking his finishing time of 32:49, I adjusted it up accordingly to 35:12. So we will pencil that is as his new PR and see if we can go sub 35 next time!

Overall it was a really fun time and felt good to just jog a race easy after twelve super hilly miles the day before.

Brandon's Official Time: 32:49, 124th out of 202 overall.
Adjusted Time for 5k distance: 35:12, 11:20/mile.