I originally wanted to run the Mountain Goat Run in Syracuse this weekend, but when I realized Jeff was going to be in Texas I knew childcare was going to be an issue. Syracuse is over 1.5 hours away so I decided to run a local 5k called Race for the Vase instead. I thought the race was in Honeoye Falls, which is a 15 minute drive from my house. In reality, the race was in Honeoye, which is a 50 minute drive! Oops! I didn’t realize this until just before bed the night before the race, and decided to race anyway.

When I arrived I realized this was going to be a small race without much competition. The roads weren’t closed for traffic so we ran on the berm. The course was essentially uphill for the first half and downhill for the last half. The hill was long, gradual and sort of annoying in a way where you couldn’t really attack it and be done with it. When I hit the first mile in 6:00, I had a feeling I wouldn’t hit my goal time of 17:30. I was able to push down the hill the last 1.5 miles and finish in 4th place overall (first female) in 18:13. This was my slowest 5k in over 2 years. (In July 2010 I ran 18:09 at Ten Ugly Men. My daughter was just 5 months old and slept peacefully most of the time!)

Gotta love that onesie.

Still, I am happy with the effort for the day. I ended up getting the course record which was good for $100 and the win got me a cool vase from The Wizard of Clay.

Check out how big my baby is now!

Favorite parts of the race:

• Friendly, small race atmosphere – I like a race where everyone seems to know everyone and even though I only knew a few people I really felt a sense of community.
• Cool pre-race announcer – The kid welcoming us and giving race instructions couldn’t have been older than 15 years old but he spoke with such confidence and had a comedic delivery. The kid just made the crowd smile, laugh and feel good.
• Singing cross country kids – The group of local cross country kids were singing Pocketful of Sunshine by Natasha Bedingfield for the first quarter mile or so. Seriously, what sport is as much fun as running?!