Angry Julie Monday

I usually sign up to run races in advance, most races it is 6+ months in advance. This was the case with the Santa Monica-Venice Christmas Run. I signed myself and my son up in July, which was cost effective, but not very smart.

When it got closer to the event, I realized that I needed someone to watch my son while I ran the 5K. Everyone was either out of town, or had plans the day of the race. Luckily, I remembered that one of our friends is an early riser, and asked him to come along. The week before the race, umm last week, I saw that the weather predictions for race day were grim. As in 70% chance of rain, the morning of the race, eeeeek!

I got home late the night before the race because we attended a Christmas Party. I pulled some things from my closet, and left them in a pile on the floor, and went to bed. I usually plan my race outfits out in advance, but I’ve been swamped lately. I woke up at 6am on race day, got dressed, got the kid out of bed, and headed on my way to get Jayson (kid sitter).

After getting our race bibs, almost losing my son’s race bib, and stripping off my extra clothing, I waited to run. I hid under a tree with several other people for about 30 minutes while it began to pour rain. This was my “what the hell was I thinking” face. Ironically, I wasn’t that cold. My hair was making me cold only because it was getting wet.

I caved and bought the super cute Pro Compression Marathon Holiday socks and wore them with my Sparkle Athletic skirt and Brooks PureFlow 2’s. The compression socks kept my legs really warm. I was sooo happy that I wore them. Seriously, I’ve never worn compression socks when racing, but they were perfect for a cold and rainy race day.

And then the race started…..

The rain had slowed down, and it was a bit drizzly. For the first 1/4 mile, I powered through. After a bit, we made a turn and it got narrowed. It was starting to rain more intensely, and people started walking. I attempted to run around the slower people and kept my pace up. After about mile 1, the rain was coming down fast and the wind had picked up. I had my hair in pigtails, and my wet hair kept hitting me in the face. My hands were super cold and I had them clenched in fists.

A little before mile 2, we started running on the Venice boardwalk. It was a little more difficult to run on the sidewalk, because there was wet sand on the ground, and areas were starting to puddle up. I would end hopping around to avoid stepping in a huge puddle.

But I powered through and finished. Seriously, I was freezing. And ummm, I PR’ed!!! I ran 30 seconds faster than my previous PR from a few months ago! Yippee! This pic was taken post-race. You can’t tell but I was soaking wet and shivering right here. It was also raining still. But it wasn’t time to leave yet…because my son still had the kids race. Oh, and this was a 5K (3.1 miles) race. I wasn’t that crazy to run a 1/2 marathon in the rain.

Notice how happy he looks? That is because it is raining outside, and he is under a covered tent. We waited until the kid’s race was about to start before leaving the covered area.

And then they were off…

My son is wearing the gray beanie, the 3rd kid from the left. He went out running fast. I ran around to the finish area waiting for him. And then I spotted him a few minutes later….

You are probably imagining what I was saying to him. “Walking, why are you walking?” It was raining, and he probably had less than two minutes left to run.

More motivational conversations while running with him. They went something like this, “I think I saw a 3 year old pass you? Maybe you should run a bit faster, so you can be done soon?”

Yay, we are running! Let’s go!

Almost finished! I sent this photo to my husband and he said that I “look like an angry duck chasing him down”…. Gee thanks husband. I was motivating him to finish! And he continued on and ran through the finish! Yippee!

And then we headed towards the car, which was probably a mile away. I parked FAR! I’m an idiot! And I was cold, and pretty much shivering!

I immediately grabbed my sweatshirt when I got to the car, and blasted the heat. I don’t think that we made it home until noon-ish. I immediately jumped in the shower when I got home to get warm. I turned on the heater in the house and bundled up. It took several hours to finally feel normal. My shoes were soaking wet, and they are still sitting in the garage, drying out.

We have no post-race photographs of the kid and I, because we pretty much hustled to the car. I had a blast, even though it was raining. I’m not sure if I would run in rain like that again. I had somewhat of a cold last week, and I think being in all that rain made it worse. I’ve struggled with sinus and cold issues all day.

It was a well organized race, fun, scenic, and you received a long sleeve tech tee with a cute design. My son even got a long sleeve shirt also. I would totally do this race again, and I will sign-up again next year!

Are you running any Holiday-Themed Races?