Last race of 2015 and I was all ready to wear my Santa shirt from the Santa Hustle two years ago, but as with the weather over Christmas last weekend, it did not cooperate. Instead, it was in the 60’s and I had to forego my long-sleeve shirt in favor of a t-shirt and shorts! Much different from the low 30’s the week before. I was out of town until late the night before the race, so I picked up my bib and race sweatshirt the morning of the race. It was incredibly foggy as I drove up to Huntersville and I didn’t 100% know where I was going, so I just picked a random spot in the parking lot and ended up being really close to the Fleet Feet Sports who was hosting the event. I got there about 45 minutes before the race started, so there wasn’t much of a line and I got my free sweatshirt, bib and then headed back to my car to get ready.

I met up with Beth and another one of her running friends and we decided to do the 5 minutes running, 1 minute walking plan for the duration of the race. None of us were really “racing” so we figured we would just enjoy the scenery and check out everyone’s Christmas decorations. 

The race was fairly hilly, but definitely manageable and took us through a lot of different little neighborhoods. The roads were still open to traffic and there were a few areas where people were trying to get through the hoards of runners, but overall, it felt safe enough and there were cops around to direct traffic at main intersections. 

We all came through the finish just about the same time and my last half of the year ended up being 2:25:00, averaging 11:03. I’ve done a few races this year that I didn’t put any thought into training for and just ran them to do it vs. because I really wanted to do the race. One of my goals for next year is to stop signing up for races just for the race and focus more on races that I’m actually excited to do. My first race in 2016 is coming up in just 1.5 weeks and I’ve officially started training for my first goal race which will be the Asheville Marathon Backyard to Vineyard Challenge – a half marathon on Saturday, followed by a full marathon on Sunday!