OC Chili Race Report

I made sure to bring a lot of foul weather gear with me (wool hat, gloves, arm warmers, disposable rain poncho, hooded sweatshirt) but in the end I didn't use any of it. What the heck - it was only 4 miles. Heather decided on the poncho.

I warmed up by running aout 10 minutes, then sitting in the car another 5 minutes with the heater blasting.

About 130 runners showed up for the race. There was light rain the whole time, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. The course was on asphalt roads, but they still managed to throw in a muddy creek that we had to cross twice. I didn't know the course ahead of time, so I assumed it would be fairly flat and started out pretty fast (for me, anyway). As soon as it turned uphill, I knew I had made a mistake. It continued to climb until the turn around at 2 miles, at which point I was really looking for some down grade. I cruised to the finish, not able to pass anyone but getting passed a couple of times. I sprinted and lost to another runner at the line, finishing in 37:37.

Heather came in at 51:06, which was a huge PR for her. Her best 5K to date was 48 minutes on a flat course. This was a mile further, had 450 ft. of elevation gain, and only took 3 more minutes! Way to go!

There was a bonfire, hot chili and lots of raffle prizes. Heather won a 1.5 liter Camelbak and I won a Montrail T shirt.