Run with Santa 5K-Why Do I Keep Running This Same Course?

The kids and I did the Run With Santa 5K this past Sunday.  It's always a fun race, but I forget how much I hate this particular course for 5Ks.  It starts uphill and ends uphill, and I don't like it very much.  However, PR puts on such a good race that I keep signing up for PR Races on that course. 
It was chilly and windy on race morning, but the kids were excited to run.  We pretty much knew it wasn't going to be a race to set any records so we focused on having a good time.  We lined up near the front in the 8-9 minute mile group, but somehow even after race start people were walking within the first quarter mile.

Nic looking good at the start.

Zach being smart and taking the outside lane to get out of the mess.

Heather getting trapped in the pack like a rookie.

 I could see the kids up ahead of me and figured that I would eventually catch up to them.  I figured that I would focus on trying to negative split the race.  I came through the first mile at 8:29.  Zach ran his first mile at 8:15, and Nic was somewhere in between the two of us.  As we turned a corner to go into mile 2 which is normally the flat easy mile in this race, we got hit with a wall of wind.  I managed to keep my pace and speed up a bit to get an 8:21.  Zach slowed down a bit for an 8:26, and I caught Nic at this point.  Zach started to pull away again in the last mile, but Nic was struggling a little on the uphill so I stayed with him.  Zach ran an 8:46 in the 3rd mile.

Zach at the finish

 Once I got up the hill, Nic took off on the flat, and I started to go with him.

Nic mixing it up with a master runner again.  I think he secretly likes to torment these guys by trying to outkick them at the finish.

  Then I saw a boy off to the side crying with his shoe in his hand.  I told Nic to go ahead and stopped to help the kid put his shoe on.  He was still crying and said that he didn't want to finish so I told him that I would run it in with him.

Me with my new little friend

 I ended up doing my last mile in 9:21 due to the time that I lost with the kid in the shoe.  My final time was 27:50, Nic was 27:19, and Zach was 26:51. Decent day overall and a fun way to spend a Sunday morning.  That was the last race of 2014 for Nic.  He has improved so much since last year, and he is developing into quite a little runner.  Zach and I are going to do a 5 mile trail race on Saturday to wrap up our 2014 race season.