Yesterday I ran the Love the Run You're with 5K with a bunch of my friends.


Debbie, Emily, Meghan, me and Megan post-race

I did this race a few years ago and it was about 8 degrees with the windchill. Luckily this year the weather was much more agreeable.


Megan, Emily and me freezing our butts off in 2012

For a few seconds I even considered wearing half tights.


Flat Jess wanted half tights

But then I made a race morning decision to opt for long ones, which I think was the right call.



It was in the high 30s or low 40s at the start, and I was glad to have gone with the full length tights.


Pre-race Snaps obviously!

This is one of my favorite races that Pacers puts on. (Ok, I think I say that about every Pacers race I run. In general, I'm obsessed with Pacers races and if you live in the DMV I can't recommend them enough. They are well organized and a ton of fun.)


Hanging out with Pres. Woodrow Wilson before the start.

One of the things that makes this 5K fun is that you register for your bib based on your relationship status: Stupid Cupid, It's Complicated or Co-Dependent.


Co-Dependent Debbie (formerly known a BFF Debbie from Megan's old blog), It's Complicated Megan and Stupid Cupid Jess. You can't see my bib in this picture, but it's green.

The swag is also a cozy fleece blanket instead of yet another t-shirt.



The race course itself is pretty basic. It's an out and back that starts with a nice steep uphill climb and then rolls a bit until the turn around point.

Then you get to do some more rolling hills and finish on a fast downhill to the finish line.

Out and backs are fun though because you can look for your friends and cheer for them along the way! I saw Megan and Debbie both fly past looking good. Then I hit the turn around and missed Meghan, but saw Emily and my coworker Warren cruising along.

I hadn't gone into this race well trained so I didn't have any time goals, but as I hit the last downhill, I saw my watch hovering around 26:30. I was pretty confident I could make it under 28 if I turned up the speed another notch. So I flew down the hill, hit the last turn and kicked it into high gear.


Forgot to stop Garmin

I managed to cross the finish line at 27:59 officially. Whoop! This is certainly no PR, but for having run all of four times in the month of January, it wasn't a bad showing.

Once we all finished, we met up inside the sponsor bar and took advantage of our drink tickets for some free mimosas. I won't lie, I was glad these were pretty much all OJ with about zero champagne. My stomach can usually not handle booze after running.


Cheers to a fun race!

We hung out for a little bit and caught some of the post-race karaoke (yes that's a thing after this race. There is also a DJ spinning sweet jams in the bar before the race starts), before I headed home for an afternoon of homework.

I'm in the process of trying to persuade my friends to run another Pacers race in March for St. Patty's Day. And since we all had fun yesterday, I think I've mostly got them convinced it's a great idea!