Christopher Martin's Christmas Run For Children 5K Race Report

Splits: 8:00; 7:55; 7:49; :46; 24:30 (7:53/M).

First off, how the heck did I run a 22:57 last year? Second, how the heck did I run a 24:30 this year?!! UGH, I felt good, but I think I "babied" myself too much. I don't have any kind of a great race report. It is my favorite 5K race ever, as you'll soon read why. It was a relatively flat course out and back from Christopher Martin's Restaurant in New Haven. The course was new, and it was OK, but I do like the course from the previous years better. No excuses though, the new course didn't slow me down. I slowed me down. I worked up a good sweat, and was actually overdressed for a cool Connecticut day. I could have worn shorts, but I chose not to since it was 19 degrees outside when my daughter and I left my house. My daughter, a co-worker and I all ran the race. We started together, but since I was given permission from the two of them to run my own race, I did. So the quality father-daughter occurred after the race during the post race party in the bar area of the restaurant. First I "established the base," meaning I ate three hot dogs and a bagel in order to have some food in my stomach before heading inside to consume my share of the 15 kegs of free beer that was available. Once inside, I had the important responsibility of passing cups and pitchers of beer back to the other patrons. That's what happens when you're tall and finish 437 of 1609 finishers. So as much as I've whined about my time, I still finished before 75% of the runners. The post race party also has a men's and women's competition with categories such as tallest, best tattoo, best sports bra...well, you get the idea. It gets pretty crazy as hundreds of runners are packed together like sardines in a small bar consuming 15 kegs of free beer (Thank-you New England Brewing Company)for 3 hours while cheering on the competitors. No, I didn't get up on the bar to compete. I wasn't drunk and stupid enough. Matter of fact, I drank responsibly as you can tell since I'm writing this today. :-) P.S. Note to self: Don't attempt to add a race to the "Previous Races" category in your blog when you're tired. Otherwise you may accidentally delete all of your previous race results. Too late....^$#@%$%