Running Mad Virtual 5K Race Recap

Have I mentioned that I am part of a Moms RUN This Town group?  My friend Natalie started it and added me as a co-leader so we can work together to convert all our friends into runners 🙂  We had our virtual race this past weekend so I wanted to give you a race recap.

The theme was “Running Mad” and you could pick your distance: 5K, 10K or half marathon.  My goal was 10K…but then I got sick…and I had to bring my daughter with me.  Remember last time I tried to have her ride her bike while I ran?  The outcome was not great that time, but this time was so different!

Two of my friends thought if I didn’t see them, I couldn’t make them run 🙂  Think again ladies!  Haha!

I told my daughter that we were in a race, so she was excited.  I also told her we would go to Starbucks after and get a cookie if she did a good job.

She had fun playing at the playground while we were getting ready. I set up the tripod to take a group picture and she figured that was her chance to practice her picture taking.

She caught us all getting our bibs on 🙂

It took us a few tries, but we got a before group picture eventually 🙂

My daughter was tired to begin with (since she never sleeps) so I totally thought I would be running WITH my friends.  Two of them are complete beginners (not for long) and the other one I have run with once before.  I wasn’t trying to get a certain speed, just wanted to have a nice run with friends and my daughter.

Only she took off like a speed demon!  It was crazy!  I took off after her to keep her in sight!  I was not prepared to run that fast, especially right at the beginning!  After awhile, I had to slow down and walk a bit because I had horrible cramps from running so fast!  It was interval training for me pretty much.  We were running around a lake that is 2.3 miles around, but there are places where it curves and she would go out of sight and I would book it to catch up to her.  I’ve seen way too many crime shows to let her out of my sight for any amount of time.

She was having so much fun on her bike, which is really a complete 360 degree change from before!  A few people running/walking in the opposite direction chuckled at my attempt to keep up with her.  One guy said “she’s sure setting the pace, huh?” Lol!

When we were about halfway done, she turned and looked at me and said “I can’t believe I’m winning this race!” And she was so excited!  She was singing away…apparently I was so caught up in her song I didn’t realize I had paused my workout and it stopped tracking our distance.  I realized it when I took my phone out of my armband to take this picture. 

We managed to run what I assumed was going to be 3.1 and then she went back to the playground while I waited for my friends to finish.  I was glad to be done first so I could take pictures of them as they finished. I ran a few laps around the playground to make sure I ran the full distance.

Once we stretched and got our medals out, we had to do another group photo.  My daughter was yelling that she couldn’t see Jen’s head, lol! 

I have a remote for my camera, only I think the batteries are going, so it was quite delayed.  I would say 3 and then nothing would happen.  Until my friend would make some kind of crazy face or gesture.

We really had a great time!  I’m so happy for my friends for completing the whole distance! And now they are all hooked and looking for the next virtual race we can do together!

Have you ever run a virtual race?  And are you part of a local Moms RUN This Town chapter where you live?