Kat's Angels Run -delayed post

Kats Angel’s 5K

Location: Strasburg PA

Date: May 9^th, 2015

Weather- Cloudy, misty and humid. About 72.

Shirt and goodies: Red shirt, bag of goodies, which included coupons, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a pencil. Really loved the goodie bags. Also, for those who lost a child the organizers gave out an angel made of shells, and flowers for the moms.

Official time: 27.25. Non chipped Timed by Pretzel City Sports.

After run snacks: Very generous! Water, coffee, donuts, protein bars, granola bars,

Toilets: the race started at the back of a fire house, there was access to the bathrooms there and a few portable toilets.

Course: downhill for the first mile, slightly uphill, then downhill for the second mile and uphill for the last mile.

Full disclaimer: After my grandmother passed away, I was very sad for a long time. She passed away the night after I had done my first 10K, and I was not in the mood for running or doing anything after her death. As part of our grieving ritual, I skipped Zumba for a month, but as part of a super busy schedule, I didn’t run as much as I had when prepping for the 10K. It felt as if I sort of just gave up. I ran this with almost no preparation, other than a 1 mine run the week before.

I wanted to run a Mother’s Day run on that weekend, and picked this one because it was helping an organization that helps parents who lost a child. There was an option to run this in the memory of a child, we ran it for my nephew.  

We arrived 45 min before, wanted to arrive earlier, but were late leaving. Strasburg is a good 1 hour drive away. Collected our bags, our numbers and went around the start line to get going. This was a bit of blur, because I was very nervous to get started.

We started close to the front, away from the strollers and some kids…. Roger and I have a not very secret envy of the parents running with their children in strollers, and passing us at runs….. we got our eyes on you strollers!! Also, please pass us on the right, and we’ll pretend we don’t see you.

The run started a few minutes after 8:30, with a light drizzle. We took off, the first mile felt good, almost too good…then realized that we were running slightly downhill.at around 1.5, two strollers passed me… you people with your wheels… I see you!! But I lost them both on the uphill. This was my 3^rd 5K for the year, and I had not stopped at any of the previous, but the humidity got me on this one and I stopped, twice!! I sprinted at the end, but was sweating and miserable when crossing the finish line. My official time was 27.25, but since it was not chip tracked, I want to believe it was slightly shorter than that.

There were a few Amish / Mennonite runners, who ran in long pants and suspender! that was amazing! Here I am on my sneakers, shorts and tech gear, whinnying about the heat! So, of course they won! Way to go!! 

I was hot, I was annoyed, all the hill training we have done, and I was defeated by hills…. Long hills. But at the same time, I was happy. We collected the shell angel, and flowers, ate breakfast at the buffet of food they had. This is one of the runs that has had the most food ever! Water, bananas, donuts, coffee, ice tea, lemonade, pretzels, chips, granola bars, protein bars, Gatorade. Very generous after run snack selection.

I wanted to get a picture with the Chick Fil A cow, but after going to take pictures of Roger at the finish line, the cow was gone.

The organizers put on a great event, and I was very happy to have picked this run. I have driven by Strasburg many many times, and it was nice to run it for once.

I hope to be back for this run next year, and run for my nephew again.