Hot Chocolate 15k

February 17th, 2019. Hot Chocolate 15k in Atlanta. Second race of my "12 Races in 12 Months" Challenge. I was nervous about it being as bad as my half marathon in January. Particularly after getting my foot crushed at work on Friday. It was bruised and slightly swollen. Would I even be ok to run? What if it was too much and it gave out? What if it was fine but my legs still didn't have it in them? Hooray for anxiety....

The morning started like all my mornings. Some carbs, protein, and lots of coffee. The threat of rain loomed as clouds and wind remained the entire waiting period in the corrals. I just had to trust it was going to be ok. I kissed my love goodbye as we made our ways to our separate corrals. Luckily, I found some friends in my corral and that helped calm me down. It's so much nicer to have friends!!

The gun went off and we were off! I felt surprisingly great considering the ride the day before and the potential broken foot. Miles started ticking away...and so did hills! I had no idea Atlanta had hills. And they weren't huge, but it was just roller after roller. The uphills killed my quads, hamstrings, glutes, and lungs. And then the downhills killed my knees. Awesome. But I've learned to run downhill better, so it was delightful to make up some time there.

Mile 5. Up a hill. Great. But over halfway! My pace was a tick under 9/mile. I was thrilled!! Especially with the elevation changes. Mile 6.2. 10k done. Just a 5k left. And I was at around an 8:50/mile pace. Even better! But 3.1 miles can sometimes be a long run. It wasn't time to drop the hammer yet.

Mile 9. Easily go time. Oh wait. It was uphill from mile 8.8 to 9.1. Fantastic. Thanks, Atlanta. But I crested that hill and knew it was mine. I had done what I had set out to do. I wanted to run an average of 9/mile pace. Overall time was 1:21.28 for an 8:45/mile pace. The sense of accomplishment!!! And oh all the chocolate afterwards....

The redemption is sweet, as is the boost of confidence that I gained back. It's a long way to September with a lot more hills to climb along the way, but I needed this "victory" in more ways than words can describe.

And onto the next!