Harbor Lights 5K

This past weekend J & A Racing had their inaugural Harbor Lights Half Marathon and 5K. My friends and I ran the 5K on Saturday. I have some strong opinions on this race. J&A usually does an awesome job and I have no complaints. This time though there were a few things left to be desired. 

1. The "expo". I've been to a fair amount of expos and packet picks ups and let me tell you they are VERY different. This was not an expo, this was a packet pick up. There is nothing wrong with a packet pick up, but I love to see the different vendors that an expo has and this had about 2 vendors and 4 other people just advertising stuff. It was disappointing. 

2. The J&A store is usually pretty good. They have great shirts, running gear, pint glasses and stemless wine glasses with the races' logo all over it. I was extra excited because the Harbor Lights logo included an anchor. They had a cute tank top I wanted to get for running with a big anchor on the front and also this really cute lightweight pull over hoodie with a big anchor on the front. This was the first day of the "expo" and they only had 2 hoodies left, both a size small. That was it. This made me so disappointed that I ended up buying nothing. 

3. It was in downtown Norfolk. If you've never been there, to be blunt, it is a bitch to get in and out of that place. 

4. It was FREEZING. Not that J&A could control this, but no one likes to freeze their butts off. Again, my fleece lined running pants are one of the best purchases I have ever made.

5. Since the course was through downtown Norfolk, it turned a lot. I actually really liked this because it kept it interesting. We also finished along the waterfront which was very pretty.  

6. Part of the race went down a cobblestone street. The cobblestones are actually ballast stones from old ships so they were way wonky. Most people moved to the sidewalks and since they were so crowded I decided to stay on the street since it was not all that long. I was good until the very end when we all turned back onto a regular street and I rolled my ankle. It still hurts today but I think it will be OK. It was fine for the rest of the race and did not start bothering me until Sunday.

7. The post race party was outside. We were comfortable for about 20 minutes after finishing and then the cold set back in. I did enjoy my Blue Moon, as pictured below. 

Cheers!

Before the race when we were still warm.

At packet pick up the night before. I thought the sailboats were too cute.

On a different note, I almost PR'ed. I ran each mile in under 10 minutes each and finished the whole thing in 30 minutes 51 seconds! I was so excited. I'm not gonna lie, it hurt. I had major cramps in my sides because I hadn't had enough water the night before but it was so worth it. I love running flat races. 

Next up??? Maybe the Surfin' Santa. I'm not sure yet. Stay tuned.

My weekend didn't end there though. Saturday night I was back in Richmond and had "friendsgiving" dinner with some old friends I had not seen in a long time. After dinner there was fun and late at night some deep chats around the fire pit. I wouldn't change a thing. Looking forward to the future :-)