Hi friends! I'm back from my unintentional hiatus with a super delayed race report for you!

On Valentine's Sunday, I ran one of my favorite 5Ks - Love the Run You're With.

Unfortunately for all the runners, the race this year fell on what is supposed to be the coldest day we have all winter. It was expected to be so cold that the race directors sent out an email the day before, saying they would let us know the status of the race in the morning -- they first needed to confirm it would be warmer than 0 degrees.

Luckily (or maybe not so luckily, depending on how you look at things) the race was still on, so my friends and I headed over to Arlington to freeze our booties off.



Gotta love that 1 degree real feel...

I've honestly never run a race with temps this cold, so I wasn't sure how to dress.

I ended up with the below outfit.



It was

• Two pairs of Under Armour tights


• A Cold Gear top


• My Terps fleece-lined running pull-over that was a Christmas present from my brother's fiancee (thanks Justine, it was a life-saver!)


• An ear warmer, hat, gloves, and UA socks.

Since it was a Valentine's Day themed race, I obviously tried to make sure I had plenty of red in there.

In good news, the race started right outside a bar, and the bar was open for race festivities and let the runners hang out in the heat. We soaked up every bit of warmth before braving it out in the cold.

The two friends that ran with my are wayyyy faster than I am. So they lined up a bit ahead of me, and then we were off.



I didn't have a goal other than finishing and not freezing to death. In that regard, I succeeded on both fronts, though I don't think I had feeling in my hands for most of the race.

My hip starting nagging at me a little bit somewhere after the turnaround point, and I could see the times on my Garmin getting slower, but I wasn't too concerned, other than the fact that slowing down meant more time out in the cold.



I finished in 27:42, only a few seconds slower than the 5K I'd run the previous weekend and the Love the Run course was way hillier, so I'll chalk that up as a win!