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

I may have a Serious Addiction!!!!

In the past 3 weeks I have ran 41, 45, and 46 miles!! Those are some crazy totals considering I would have been lucky to have a total of 20 miles a week back in October/November of last year! I definitely have my mojo back!! I keep wanting to push myself more and more with my running! My legs are feeling strong and powerful and I love it!! I am super proud of how far I have come with my running.  Back when I started running almost 3 years ago, I had a hard time running a full mile on the treadmill and it took me between 13-15 minutes to do it! I would get so down on myself, thinking that I would never be able to run a 10 minute mile! Now I can run that consistently for long distances, but I get down on myself when I can't maintain 9 minute miles for a 5K! I need to just be proud of myself for how far I have come with my running! I will get there! I'm just always in such a competiton with myself! I know I can I can do so much better with my nutrition so I am going to read this b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Project: Garage 2016 Part 4: Trusses, roof work, framing, and a new back door

I am so stinking excited about the work that has been done on my garage this week!  I am so incredibly thankful for our builders (Hometown Remodeling, LLC)!  They have put in a lot of work and it has been incredibly hot this week.  I love the sun and I love to lay out in the sun, but even I didn’t want to go out this week!! Here’s what went down this week: Monday, July 18, 2016 :  The trusses were delivered while the kids and I were at swim lessons.  That was all that we thought was going to happen today.  Luckily the builders finished their other job up early and headed to our house to get started on setting the trusses.  They got about half of them set up before quitting for the day.   Tuesday, July 19, 2016 :  The builders arrived at 8:30 am to start on finishing the trusses, putting the wood down for the roof, and  tar paper to get ready for the shingles.  These 3 guys worked super hard all day.  They di...
Post a Comment
Read more

Madison Marathon 2016

You guys!!!  I ran my second full marathon!!!  And I beat my time by 7 minutes!!!  I am still in shock several weeks later that I actually did it!  (And that it’s taken me this long to write about it!)  I didn’t quite make my ultimate goal of under 5 hours, but I was super close with a time of 5:04:03!!!  Can you believe it??? Here’s how it all went down: The family and I drove up to Madison on Friday night to get my packet at the Expo.  We hung around the Expo looking at the different booths, hanging out with fellow runners, and making signs. My kids made the greatest signs for me for race day! Such a pretty sight! There signs are so cute!  I love how supportive they are! We went to Pizza Ranch for dinner afterwards which is always a nice carb-loading trip.  I tell ya their pizza and chicken are the best.  We recently went to Mac’s Pizza Shack which is a local restaurant and their pizza is good but just not qui...
Post a Comment
Read more