Jingle Bell 5k Part Deux

Post race at Piccadilly's with my mom, Polly

I raced my 2nd Jingle Bell run of 2013 yesterday morning at the Apple Capital Jingle Bell 5k in Winchester, Virginia. My main goal was to try and run close to 17:30. This seemed reasonable after my 17:56 hilly Saturday 5k last weekend that I followed up with an 18:13 5k less than 24 hours later at The Carrollton Runners Club Prediction Run 5k.
{Quick story about that race} Silly me lined up for a "Prediction Run" with my Garmin on. Not because I cared about actually hitting my predicted time to win a gift card, but because I wanted to get a good workout in and push myself to not settle into too slow of a pace. Needless to say I ran without the watch as soon as someone called attention to it and I realized that clearly I wasn't thinking clearly at 7:30am. I actually was only 13 seconds of my predicted time and received a gift card!




Although I finished as the 2nd woman yesterday morning I am pleased with my effort and I am excited to really get back to training. I decided to lay out a month of racing every weekend to have some fun while getting back into the hang of doing workouts and this was a successful race #3. I have also started to slowly increase my mileage after staying in the 30s and 40s all cross country season (which is extremely low mileage for me).
I always enjoy racing back in my home state of Virginia and having both my parents come was a nice treat. Plus we had surprisingly warm weather! I was pleased that I maintained a decent pace through miles 2 and 3 even though I wasn't able to gain any places those miles. My splits were 5:30, 5:42, 5:43.

Start of the Race!

Leading for the women around the 1st loop

Coming back into the square for the finish

My Dad and I also wore some fun matching Tasmanian Devil Christmas socks!

My dad always called me "Taz" growing up some what because I was speedy, but mostly because I left a mess in every room in the house that I had been in.

Next weekend the plan is to race a 10k! I haven't raced a specific 10k distance race (although I've raced some longer distances) since July. So I am excited to see what I can do as I continue to build fitness.