It was windy and subfreezing cold. I had on 3 shirts, fleece pants, hat and gloves. For this race, I decided I won’t listen to the iPod. During my last 5K race, I couldn’t consciously pay attention to the music, all I could think of was “run, run, don’t stop, don’t stop, why did I sign up for this?”

Since I ran this same course last year, I was prepared for the hills. I was also determined to run continuously (no walking allowed) during this race. In the end, I did walk for several seconds at the water stop (running and drinking from a cup can be very tricky), but other than that I ran the whole way and completed the race with a new personal record!