Hobble Gobble Prediction Race Re-Cap

Today was a very exciting day for me!  It was the first time I've been able to race since July and I was ready to go!

This is the 2nd year I've run the Hobble Gobble.  It's a very popular local race, they actually capped and closed registration at 625 people.  It's a prediction race, so you don't find out the distance until you get there.  There are two distance options, one is 4 miles or less and the other is 7 miles or less.  This year the long course was 6.1 miles and the short course was 3.2 miles.

I ran the long course last year and was hoping to run it again this year but because of my surgery I knew it was a better idea to run the short course.  Injuries are not welcome in my life so I felt I'd be pushing my luck racing 6.1 miles without a proper base built.

This race always brings out lots of local runner friends of mine plus I was thrilled to be riding to the race with two close friends and my incredible mom-in-law.

Pre-race pics with Deb, my mom-in-law!

The weather was beautiful, you never know what you're going to get in Northern NY in November so 50 degrees and sun was perfect.  We went inside the fire hall where the packet pickup was and grabbed our swag.  We also filled out the form with our predicted times...I predicted that I would finish in 34:23.

We chatted with some friends, put on our bibs and made our way to the start.  Since it's a prediction race there are no Ipods or Garmins allowed which made me a little crazy as I have an unhealthy dependence on listening to music while I race.  The cool part about this race is that cheerleaders from local high schools come and cheer on the racers and there are local bands on the course too so I didn't miss the Ipod as much.

I hugged Deb goodbye, wished her a good race and took off.  It was a slow start because the race director didn't ask the walkers to start in the back so I was weaving in and out of people for the first few minutes.  I was so excited to be there that I had to keep reminding myself not to take off too fast.  I felt so good, it was actually fun to not be "cut off" from the other racers by my Ipod so I could cheer for everyone I knew wherever I saw them on the course.  It was an out and back course so I knew that I had a couple of decent sized hills to conquer on the way back, the biggest one being "Hobble Hill" which is right before the finish line.  

I couldn't believe it when I hit the turn around at 1.6 miles, it seemed like the race was flying by.  The 2 mile marker seemed like it appeared really quickly too.  I would've loved to have had on my Garmin to see my mile splits.  It was all good until I reached the bottom of Hobble Hill.  I don't know if I just psyched myself out or if I was running out of steam but I hit the wall hard.  I've never hit the wall like that in a 5K before, my legs felt so heavy and I had to slow down my pace quite a bit.  I finally made it to the top of the hill, ran under the finish line that was kind of falling down and got my medal.  The other thing that stinks about a prediction run is that they don't give you your time at the finish time so I had no idea how I did.

The start/finish line wasn't holding air very well, people had to duck underneath it

I stuck around the finish line to cheer on all the rest of the people I know that were finishing the race.  I met up with my friends and mom-in-law and we went inside to gorge on the after race food.  They had homemade chili, homemade cookies, bagels and cream cheese and yogurt.  I think I did more post race carb loading than necessary but it tasted so good.  We stuck around for the post race awards, the winner of the race finished within 0:00.2 of their predicted time.  Pretty wild.

Post race crew!

As we were walking out we saw they had posted the results.  I finished in 34:51, only 28 seconds off of my predicted time.  I'm very happy with that time (averaged 10:53 minutes/mile) since I haven't raced in a long time and my legs weren't as strong as I want them to be.  

Plus that hill kicked my butt.  

The solution:  Find bigger hills to train on!

It was a really fun day overall with some really great people and a great way to kick of the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge! (3 points down already!)

Post Race Hugs!

And I'm so so proud of Deb, she beat her predicted time by 3 minutes, 53 seconds.  Can't wait to race some more next year with this incredible lady!!   

So that wraps up my "race season" for this year.  I didn't race as much as I hoped to but a lot of changes took place over the last year.  I have big dreams and big plans for 2012 though so look out!