This was oddly my first official 15k race. Ally has been asking for a year to run this one so I finally broke down and registered us both for the 15k.
It wasn’t easy training Ally for a 15k while I was still training for Nola. The mileage just didn’t work and she won’t get up at 4:30 during the week to run short runs. I had to rely on the weekends and her getting in a few miles a day at school. Fortunately, I think she has some natural talent and ability too. She made this race look easy.
Her longest run was 8.25 miles, that was 6 days after I ran Nola. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get it done, but it was a good run. It was for our MRTT virtual so there were a lots of ladies out running and one just a little faster than me ran ahead with Ally the last 4 miles or so. That is what I love about running with a group. These moms take care of each other!
We definitely got our money’s worth. It’s not what I would call a “cheap” race, but we sure did get a lot for our money! We got a nice jacket, hot chocolate and chocolate fondue at the finish, a big medal and free video of us finishing and free photos.
I had initially planned to let Ally run by herself, she told me to go on. I started out a little faster but slowed down to run with her. (honestly she probably would have passed me anyway). We kept the first 6 miles at a mid 8 range, then dropped sub 8 to the finish. She got ahead of me a little but I caught her at mile 7.5 to finish together (mostly). She was about 5 seconds ahead of me at the finish line.
I run hills a lot, but I was a little surprised at how hilly Dallas is. Mile 5 seemed to go on forever and then bam, mile 8.5 we had to climb a bridge to head into the finish. Ally took those hills like a champ!
Here I am chasing her to the finish line.
The weather was chilly at the start. But I knew we’d warm up quick. I tossed my gloves at mile 2 and Ally was tying that jacket around her waist shortly after.
This is a big race, a lot of people participate in the 5k. If I had one bad thing to say, it’d be not starting on time. But in all fairness, I don’t think it was the race directors fault. There were so many people that were late. I have never seen that many people be so late to a race. The 15k corrals were trying to line up and the 5k’ers were still coming in from the sides. Finally they stopped them and made them wait until after all the 15k corrals were gone then they started another corral for the 5k.
I would run this 15k again, but I’m not sure I would run the 5k. They did have signs up at the front corrals that said “no walkers” and they were making announcements about it and if you wanted to walk to please move to the side of the road. I feel like they did a good job at crowd control considering how many people were there.
This is one of my favorite pictures!
Here’s the finish line goodies.
Ally really enjoyed the chocolate! Unofficially she placed 2nd in her age group (14 and under). Her award is supposed to be mailed in 6-8 weeks.
Here’s most of the group of ladies I run with every week!
After our group finished, we headed to lunch. I had already let Ally choose since it was her big day. We love to eat in Dallas anytime we can, so I was glad she chose Chuy’s. It’s one of our favorite tex-mex restaurants.
I really enjoyed this race and running with Ally. Looking forward to the next race!
Have you run a Hot Chocolate race?
What are you training for?
Happy running,
Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. Hebrews 12:1
