Chilly Half Marathon Training: Day 7 The Hanukkah Hustle

Today puts me at the end of the first week of training.  It's been a good week.  To end it, I ran the Hanukkah Hustle 5k.  I really enjoy this race as it's small and I love the course.  I like watching the residents of the assisted living facility get out and enjoy time with family and the volunteers.  Here we are before the race.

It was starting to snow as we headed to the start line.  It was a pretty fluffy snow too.  I reminded Mike that he should be thankful that I was only doing the 5k and not the 10k.  He didn't have to stand outside as long.  I know he went inside to stay warm.  He knows my times and knows when to be out at the finish line.  And he was!  Here I am crossing the finish line.

The race itself was okay.  My legs were really tired from my runs this past week.  I knew I would be slow, but I was fine with that.  It took me awhile to get my legs stretched out and feeling good.  By that point I was almost at the finish line.  The finish for this race is uphill.  I got to the hill and kept repeating, "Up the hill. Across the line."  It got me there.  It's not the hill was particularly big or steep, it was just my legs were that tired.  I got my finisher's medal and we headed inside for hot dogs, latkes, and to check results.

I didn't think I had gone fast enough to place, but I was surprised that I got 3rd in my age group!  We stayed for the awards.  The top 3 in each age group got Star of David pendants.  They were pretty cool!

Here's a picture of both my finisher's medal and my age group pendant.

Tomorrow is my rest day.  I will just take River for a long walk.  Tuesday I'm in the gym for speed work and weights, Wednesday it's a 4 mile run, Thursday cross training and weights, and Friday is my long run.  Saturday is my rest day and Sunday I have a swim meet so I can't run then.  I'm ready to tackle the 2nd week of training!