Skip to main content

Santa Hustle 5K Recap

I had such an awesome time running the Santa Hustle 5K in Milwaukee on December 6, 2014. 
I love that we have made this family event the past 2 years!  Last year the kids were not able to see me run as Maddie got sick in the middle of the night.  This year was different.  

We drove up Friday night to our hotel and bought some snacks in their nicely stocked pantry.  We relaxed and watched TV in the room.  We stayed up late and snuggled in the very comfy queen-sized beds.

I actually was very creative this year, which is so unlike me, and brought goodies for St. Nick and our Elf on the Shelf with us.  I was up before everyone else the next morning, so I was able to plant the elves and place the goodies in the kids' shoes.  They were so excited to see what St. Nick brought for them and the looks on their faces when they saw Ellie and her buds was absolutely priceless!  So worth the trouble of packing them. 


Finding Ellie and her crew!!


Digging in their shoes for the goodies!!

After the fun of the morning, it was time to get ready to go to the race!  We got ready and headed to the Lake Front!  It was a beautiful morning and the weather was pleasant!  I opted to get my packet the morning of the race.  This year instead of shirts, they had sweatshirts.  They were running small with the sizes so I ended up with a Men's Medium.  It was big, but it's really comfy so I'm good with it.  I probably look a little silly in it, but I don't care!  It is what it is!



The skyline of Milwaukee is really beautiful!!


Shameless pre-race selfie!!

The race itself was really fun!  I wanted to push myself to race hard and fast, so I lined up in the 9 minute mile corral!  I usually always doubt my capabilities, but today I wanted to prove to myself that I can race hard and run miles in the 9 minute range. I did my very best with times in the 9:30 range for the entire race.  It was not a PR for me for the race, but I felt like I really pushed myself hard.  I have been running slower in 5Ks since training for longer distances.  I am working to build my speed back up and keep it for a longer distance.  Winter goals right now.  I am happy with my official time of 29:47.  I was 28:57 last year and felt like I ran faster and harder this year, but it is what it is.  I am not that upset about it!  I enjoyed myself, it was for a good cause (Toys For Tots), and it was the first year that my kids were able to see me run with a bunch of other Santas!  

The best part of the race was coming to the finish, seeing my kids waving to me from a a tree they were sitting in!  Very awesome memory!

When I finished, we headed over to see the reindeer and get pictures with the giant blow up Frosty!


My babes and the reindeer!  EJ even petted one of them!


My babes and I with Frosty!!  (See my huge sweatshirt!! It's so comfy though!!)


Luckily there were a bunch of other people taking pictures so we were able to have a family picture taken and we made sure to return the favor!  

I love this family tradition that we have!  We enjoyed a fun night away in a hotel, a fun Santa Hustle race, and Christmas shopping afterwards!  It was an awesome weekend!  I can't wait to do it again next year!!

As always, Be Strong, You Never Know Who You Are Inspiring!!

Run On My Friends!!

Laura

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When Life Throws You Lemons--My Comeback

I know I haven't’ been the best blogger as of late.  Honestly, I haven’t felt like sharing much of what I’ve been going through the past year.  Maybe I felt ashamed for struggling so much and wanted to continue to give off the persona that everything was perfect.  I’m not perfect. Far from it. But that’s what makes me real and human. I think that’s what people want to see and read about.  Not everyone is a fitness model or perfect wife and mother. So here it is! My comeback to blogging. It’s going to be real and raw and everything I’ve kept inside.   Last year when we returned from our Disney vacation (June 2017), I started back into training for my 3rd Madison Marathon.  I wanted a PR so badly for this race. I wanted so badly to be under 5 hours. My training sucked! With EJ starting peewee football and my class load at work (I’ll get into that later), every time I thought about this race, I dreaded it.  Honestly, I was falling more and mo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spring Break Fun!!!

Spring Break was sure fun and interesting!!  Carpet cleaning, a trip to Ikea, egg coloring, Easter Egg Scramble, and all the fun of Easter morning have made this a memorable spring break for sure. I have truly loved being home with my kiddos but there were times, especially Sunday afternoon after too much Easter candy, that I was definitely ready to head back to work and for them to head back to school. Monday was the only day my hubby had to work as he took vacation the rest of the week.  So the kids and I did some random stuff around the house and ran some errands.  Maddie went to Menards to pick out paint for her desk so she could paint it with Poppa.  While they were doing that, I took EJ to get his haircut and then to Shopko to get some totes for under the bed storage, the kids’ projects and their photo albums.  I have recently switched from using photo albums to using photo boxes.  You can fit in so many more photos and still have the ability to wr...
Post a Comment
Read more

2 Weeks of March Reflections

Well it’s been an interesting start to March.  I apologize for no blog last week.  It was a stressful week for me and didn’t have anything positive to say so I knew that would be reflected in my blog.  And that’s not how I want my blog to come across.   So let me recap what happened that first week of March.  The week started out just fine until I decided to check on the status of my license renewal through DPI.  Because I have 2 licenses; one as a teacher and one as a reading specialist, I had to renew both of them.  Well my teaching license is fine and will most likely be approved and renewed based on my teaching experience and my PDP (professional development plan).  My reading specialist license is another story.  It is not being approved right now as I didn’t complete the correct PDP as DPI classifies reading specialist as an administrative license.  I knew this, I just didn’t realize that my PDP would be any different.  I ...
Post a Comment
Read more