Shuffle Success!

Last Saturday was the Santa Shuffle, a Team Z race! I decided a couple of weeks before that this would be...fun. And a good way to test my foot.

I'm happy - thrilled is more like it - that the Santa Shuffle, and the test of my foot, was a success! My foot did not hurt at all! Outside of the fact that both feet were freezing due to the cool temps. OK, it was below freezing I think, who are we kidding! We got to the race site quite early – but we got in and out of packet pickup without having to wait in the line outside in the cold! Back to the car for some heat. I stepped out to use the port o potty - no lines and it was actually warmer in the john than outside! Then I got a cup of coffee from the Z tent and headed back to the car for a bit. It was finally time to get outside and sort of get ready to race. By then more Z'ers were showing up.

The race started at 8:30 and at around 8:15, as promised, they walked us over to the start. I had worn a couple of jingle bells with my 'costume' picture above. Someone in the race was handing out more - so I took two to add to my collection. You would be able to hear me coming, that's for sure! I was hanging out with Jeff, Marlene, Harriet, and Jason before the start. The race started in a kind of quiet manner. Oh well, it was a small event. The course was out-and-back in a neighborhood and at times it was a bit narrow - especially with the piles of leaves and the parked cars. Fortunately I did not trip!

I started out slow and comfortable and decided I would try to pick it up at the turn around. During the out part there is a nice hill that you go down and I hit the 1 mile point along here. Needless to say my mile 2 split was much better than the first! I was feeling good as well and as I approached the turn around saw lots of teammates. Around the turn around and saw more z'mates! I did my best to push up that hill and while I think I slowed some I did pass some people. As I got close to the turn to the finish I got a shout out for my jingle bells, too! At the finish I stopped my watch and discovered I'd managed to break 30 minutes. Just barely, but I was pretty happy since I'd not run in 34 days!

After a quick post race snack Jeff and I met Marlene, Harriet, and Jason (is there a pattern here?) at the Starbucks. I had a delicious and somewhat earned Peppermint Mocha Soy Latte! It was delicious!
Later on at home I checked the results and my official time was 29:51.3 and I was 6 of 18 women in my age group. I was really happy with that! Out of women I was 97 of 327. And strange enough, there were more female finishers than male, which I think is unusual.

Anyway, I saw the foot doc this week and while he made a face over my race he was very pleased with my progress. And my foot still feels good! I'm going to take it easy till just after Christmas. On Monday, December 27 I am good to go to start marathon training. Shamrock weekend here I come!

Happy and Healthy Training!