Broad Run Jingle Bell 5 Miler-Last Race of 2014 and Surprise Age Group Win

This past Saturday Zach and I ran the Broad Run Jingle Bell 5 Miler.  This is the third year that I have done this race.  It's a great local race that benefits local trails and is always fun and festive.  Zach decided that he wanted to join me this year since he has been wanting to do a trail race.  This race is mixed road/trail with about 2 miles on paved surfaces and the rest on gravel or packed dirt trails.  It's a good race for newer trail runners so it was perfect for him.  It was really cold on race morning (28 degrees), but there was no wind so it didn't feel too bad.  We got our bibs and ankle chips and our jingle bells for our shoes.  Then we stayed warm in the car until about 15 minutes before race start.

Freezing pre-race

We met up for a photo with some Moms Run This Town ladies.  Then we were off on the race.

My running friend and I have done this race three years straight

This photo has the 1,2,3 40-49 women and the 14 and under boy winner

 Zach started pretty fast, but I hurried to catch up to him because I really wanted to run the whole race with him.  I had just done 12 trail miles on Friday, but my legs were still feeling pretty good.  We did an 8:46 on the first mile which was mostly all paved.  Then we hit the trail section.  He did really well on this section with a 9:21 in the second mile, but I could tell that the trail was starting to get to him.  He was having to work harder than he normally does on the road to keep the pace.  Mile 3 was mostly on the trail, and his legs were feeling tired in this section.  He ran a 10:15.  During mile 4 we got back on the road which he was happy about, but this is also the section where almost all of the elevation gain for the course occurs.  There was close to 100' of gain on one big hill in this mile so he only managed a 10:22 pace.  He was feeling discouraged, but I let him know that he could still get his goal of a sub-50 minute finish if he pushed on the last mile.  The last mile was back on the trail and then a short uphill past the elementary school playground to the finish.  A bunch of the older cross country boys were hanging out at the playground and did a great job encouraging him to finish strong up the hill.  He got his time back down to 9:59 for the last mile and got a 48:41 finish.  We didn't bother to stay around for age group awards because I thought it was 15 and under for his age group and they only award 1st in each age group. 

Zach and I after the race.  He just wanted to drink his cocoa and eat that cookie.

Once we got home we had a results email letting us know that he had won his age group because it was 14 and under.  He had the best time in his age group. The race director was really amazing and dropped his medal off at our house the next day.  He was really happy to get that.  I ended up 3rd in the 40-49 year old women and although I didn't get an award I was happy with that because there were a lot of women in that age group, and I was running with Zach and not racing.  I could have pushed a lot harder, but it was so much fun for us to run it together.  I'm looking forward to an amazing 2015.

Happy to run with my boy