Sooooo that time of year has come! It’s a magical time, a time when I begin to have a race just about every week! After a snowy and cold winter, I’m more than ready to get outside and enjoy the beautiful weather and races make it that much more fun!
My first race of the springtime was the Pierpont Veteran’s 5K located in Fairmont, WV at the “Tech Park” located just off I-79. I was SO excited for this race but… I had just finished working my last night shift of a stretch of nights that morning sooooo I was literally running on a couple of hours of sleep. It was a cold and rainy/drizzly evening for this race, but I don’t mind running in the rain. There was a really good turnout for the race despite the weather. I was optimistic that the race wouldn’t be too hilly (there are some hills on either end of the park) but I was wrong. The majority of the course was flat-ish/rolling but then there was this really steep part close to a mile in, and then after climbing that I thought I’d be going down the hill soon after WRONG. I had to climb another small hill, run around a tower, and then I got to run down a hill, and then do the first part of the course again! Overall, the course wasn’t the worst I’ve run, but after working a couple of nights in a row and not being my most rested it was very tough! I’d recommend this race definitely! The t-shirt that we got was a pretty cool design (it’s in the other room where my husband is sleeping, so I’ll try to remember to edit these posts later with pictures of the shirts when it’s daylight or when he’s not sleeping).
The race I ran about a week after Pierpont was at Cooper’s Rock just outside of Morgantown, WV. If you’ve never been to Cooper’s Rock I highly recommend you go! The overlook is beautiful and so scenic! (I would suggest sometime when there’s more foliage, the fall is definitely gorgeous! And I didn’t get to make it out there to take a pic to put on here… sorry!!) This race was a 10K which is pretty hard to come by in this area and it was run mainly on the main road that runs from the entrance of the park to the overlook, the race is usually run on the last weekend in March since it’s the last weekend that the park is closed to traffic. The weather wasn’t terrible that day, just really cold, especially up on a mountain top, so there was a really good turnout for the race. Josh had just run (and placed 3rd overall) in a marathon the day before and had thought it would be a good idea to run this race. Since he wasn’t totally feeling it that day he decided to run the race with little ol’ me! It was so nice to run with him since we rarely run together anymore, it was also nice for me mentally to have someone to push me through. I was optimistic about this race… until I started running it!
The course was rolling and hilly, 2 of the hills were SO steep it was crazy!! I couldn’t have been happier to outsprint 2 girls in front of me (and my husband 😉 ) and be done with that race!! I still recommend this race because it provides beautiful scenery and a challenging course, you can bet I’ll be back there next year!
RunNurseWorld 