Since I didn’t start this blog until November, I don’t have a detailed summary of most of my races in 2013, but I wanted to “catch up” on races I did prior to November and what I can remember from them. So, each Friday in December I will post a recap of some of the races I did earlier this year.

March 16 – Color Me Green 5k – 33:50 – My first trail race. Salomon was there and I tried out their Speedcross shoes. I have nothing to compare the shoes to, but they worked pretty well for me. Throughout the woods, there were people hidden behind (and up in) trees and they would throw green corn starch at all of the runners. Similar to the Color Run, but with a whole new dimension of difficulty! The biggest challenge for the day was just the sheer number of attendees – I think the final runner count was over 1,000 and was way beyond what the race organizers had hoped for, so the start was delayed a bit waiting for everyone to get to the start line and then there was quite a bit of congestion at the start line before people were able to spread out a little getting into the woods. This is still the only trail run I’ve ever done, but as I check a few other things off my “running bucket list” I may need to add a few trail runs in! This was also a great way to kick-off St. Patrick’s Day festivities as there were lots of events and bands throughout the day, including watching the river at the US Whitewater Center turn green! 

March 23 – Run for the Ridge 5k – 25:51 (1st place in my age group) – The only things I really remember from this race is that it was cold and rainy and I was sprinting to the finish against a kid who was easily half my age! I took 19 seconds off my previous PR in this 5k, so despite the weather, it was a great race.