Spa 10k race report

A very belated race report from the Spa 10k in Hot Springs, AR last week (sorry Annette!!). Where to start? It was COLD, COLD, COLD--as in below freezing temps cold, brrrr. This was my first time running this race but I kind of had some idea of how challenging it was going to be from the race description. What didn't help was that I'd been slacking off on my training for a couple of weeks (did I mention that I don't like winter?) so I wasn't quite as prepared for it as I should have been. Oh, it didn't help my attitude any when the directions on the website and google maps were wrong--neither James or I are familiar with the area so we got a little lost.

Great swag--long sleeve t-shirt, runners vest (way too big though), and a very nice New Balance backpack--well worth the race fee. I love races with excellent goodie bags, LOL! Chip timing is always nice too unless your chip doesn't work like Vicki's. I was wondering why they weren't having us double-check to make sure they were working properly before the race.

Managed to find some of the Cruiser women in the bathroom when I went in to take my final pre-race potty break but lost them again until a few minutes before the race start. Annette gives the best hugs by the way, if you're feeling down you need to find her asap! Lined up with Brenda 'cause normally we're pretty close to the same speeds but she's training to Boston qualify and she kicked my butt Saturday!! Her hard work is definitely paying off. By the way, why don't you have a blog Brenda? You need one, I love listening to you.

Ok back to the race. Ummm, it's one giant hill!! My legs hurt until Wednesday, I'm guessing I should have warmed up a little bit beforehand, ha-ha. It was a bit much to take off that fast on cold legs. We did have one car that passed us while I was on the mountain, could have been a bad situation because there were runners stretched out across both lanes. None of us were expecting any traffic. Beautiful scenery and there quite a few people watching and cheering once we got back into town.

Final time was 52:53 which is an almost 5 minute improvement over my last (and first!) 10k time of 57:43 so new p.r.!! 29/150 females, 114/310 overall, 6/28 age group. Because the 2nd female overall was in my age group, I ended up with the 5th place age group award. Brenda finished in 51:39 (told ya she kicked my butt!!), excellent time! I'm too lazy right now to look up everybody else's times but they can be found here--Spa 10k results. I know Lisa Fe. was 3rd overall--she's FAST.

Starbucks coffee (yum!) and baked potatoes were available afterwards, both were most welcome after that challenging run. All the Cruisers huddled up afterwards waiting on the awards ceremony--I think that's my major complaint, it was held outside. We were freezing and it was hurting my legs standing around for so long in the cold on the concrete. We did get to meet a new Cruiser (and future Cruiser hopefully!), Ethan and his wife Stephanie. Very, very nice people (and he's another speedy one, yay!).