Yesterday morning I ran the Athlete’s Closet Holiday 5K, the first of four races in the Athlete’s Closet Winter Series in West Chester, PA.  I ran this series last winter and had fun (despite the 10° temperature for January’s race!) so I signed up again for the whole series this year.

As usual, Matt and Piper came along to watch — race-spectating is a great way to socialize and tire out a puppy!  Matt and Piper went for a walk during the race and, much to Matt’s surprise, they discovered a paddock full of llamas right in the middle of an otherwise normal suburban neighborhood street!!  Piper and the llamas seemed equally fascinated by one another… the llamas trotted right over to the fence to check her out and Piper watched cautiously from the other side of the street, blurting out a few tentative “woofs” to see what they’d do (the llamas didn’t care).  Matt brought me over to the llamas to show me Piper’s reaction after the race was over.  Very funny!

But back to the race… I remembered from last year’s races that this 5K course isn’t particularly exciting or easy.  It zig-zags out through hilly neighborhoods, loops around a bit and then zig-zags back to the finish.  I find the constant turns to be disorienting (I never know which direction I’m pointing until I get back to the road where the finish line is) but after running this course three times last winter I at least have a better idea of when to expect the next hill.

The first mile of the race flew by in a quick 7:29.  The second mile suddenly felt a lot harder and crept by in a sluggish-feeling 8:11.  But then my legs redeemed themselves during mile 3 when I was able to pick up my pace up a long hill (passing 2 people!) and then finish strong with a final split of 7:57.  After running two races last weekend I went into this race just wanting to have fun and stay relaxed and with a finish time of 23:55 I think I certainly accomplished that goal!

I’ll be capping off 2014 with two final events: a fun, 3 mile prediction run at The Running Place next weekend and then the New Year’s Eve 5K at the Upper Main Line YMCA.  Last year I ran a PR at the New Year’s Eve race and I’ve already set my sights on a new PR there this year!

Miles since last post: 21.4
Days since last post:  5
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.87
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1693.8

Related Posts:
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•  Seven Summits Turkey Trot (11/27/14)
•  Metal Run 5K (11/8/14)
•  Trinity Berwyn 5K (11/1/14)  [New PR!]
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•  Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
•  Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
•  Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
•  Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
•  Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
•  Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
•  New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13) [PR]
•  Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
•  Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
•  Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
•  Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13) [PR]
•  Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
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