Full Moon 5K Race Report (2015)
Thursday marked my third year in a row running the Full Moon 5K with Rachel in Madison… and third year in a row wearing the same Grumpy Cat shirts*!
Heh, also, third year in a row not caring about pace at all, and just running it for fun.
The date of this race changes each year – I’m assuming to be closer to the actual full moon? In 2013, it was on Thursday, July 25. Last year, it was on Wednesday, August 6. This year, it was back to Thursday, on July 30. And was very close to the full moon – and a special full moon – a blue moon**!
My awesome almost full moon picture, ha ha.
This was the first year that, running the race on a Thursday, I had to teach the Friday 5:00 am fitness class the next morning (back in Grayslake!). I would have asked someone else to teach it if I hadn’t already had a sub the week before, and if two of the four trainers weren’t out of town. Eek! It was funny to spend the same amount of time driving to Madison and back, that we were actually there, and not be able to spend the night at Rachel’s this time, but I still really wanted to do the race. It’s a lot of fun! (And I knew I could take a nap after teaching class on Friday, luckily!).
The race uses a shelter at Ollin Park for packet pickup and finish, and you walk about half a mile from there to get to the race start on the south side of Monona Bay. Then you run along the bay and part of Monona Lake and back to Ollin Park. There is a guy dressed up as a werewolf, and if you beat him, you get something… but this race is pretty competitive, so I have never even looked up to see what that “something” is!
View of the capitol from Ollin Park
It was a GORGEOUS night in Madison – in the high 70s with about 50% humidity and so clear! There was a nice breeze for the first mile or two of the race… then it felt pretty stuffy at the end.
With Rachel’s pub run friend’s Allie and Carley before race start
We didn’t have any sort of time goal, but when we ran our first mile in 9:42, and our second in 9:34 (that was with a stop to drink water), I was thinking “well, we gotta go for negative splits, now!” Our last mile was 8:52 and the last tenth was at a 7:30 pace for a 29:22 finish time.
As soon as we finished, the sweat started pouring down. It’s so funny – you think it’s nice and cool out, and that you feel pretty good, then when you stop moving, your body is like “What was that?! Are we done now?!”
We hung out for a bit, chatting with Rachel’s pub run friends and Linda, then headed out to meet our husbands at Ian’s Pizza! Ha, on the drive up, I told Steven I was going to order the largest pizza possible, so we could have leftovers at home, and whoa, he did get a HUGE pizza! One slice was the size of my head!
Yes, that pizza has tater tots AND sliced potatoes on it
So, last year, we were a little bummed that the place we picked to hang out after had live music and we couldn’t hear each other talking (the music was good, but we wanted to chat). So this year, Rachel made sure that place didn’t have music if we wanted to go back, but also suggested Ian’s, which she knew I would jump at, because I love their pizza (and all their vegan options).
Then right when we got there, this HORRIBLE stand-up comedy was starting. Gawd, it was painful. And we could barely hear each other again. We were laughing about it though. Hey, it got us out of their quicker – we all had to work (in some capacity) the next day!
But it was WAY too short of a trip. We got to the race a bit early and Rachel and I got to rapid-fire try to catch up on each other’s lives, but it felt too rushed (just by the nature of the schedule, not anyone’s actions). And of course, after the race, we were like “A 5K just isn’t that much time to chat!” Ha. Luckily, Rachel and I (and our husbands!) have a two-day camping trip planned in August, so I know we’ll get to catch up at a relaxed pace, then!
*I wasn’t sure if Grumpy Cat was still relevant, but we did get a few compliments on the shirts this year!
**Which I had to look up exactly what it means, but it’s when you have two full moons in one month. It happens about every three years, hence the saying “once in a blue moon.”
Themocracy
It’s true, the visit was too short but we both had such a good time with you two! Thanks for coming up again! See you in a few weeks for camping!!!
One day we will ‘race’ this race, right? Nahhhhhhh….haha!
We raced it last year, remember? LOL!
That pizza though! :O
I was ASTONISHED how many people thought “blue moon” had something to do with the color of the moon. lol
Yeah, I sure did until I looked it up! I mean, we have blood mood, which is about the color, so why wouldn’t blue moon be that way? Ha! I totally had forgotten about the saying!
I really need to do a race in Madison someday. I puffy heart that place.
I hope you get to!
I’ve only raced a couple of times at night. Here, it would be 90 degrees – not so fun. I’m not sure I want to know there is someone in a werewolf suit out there. Tater tot pizza? I’m in. Camping with friends will be FUN!
Tater tots on pizza!?! That sounds inspired! I might have to find a way to try and make that at home since I don’t know of anywhere around here that has that option 🙂
Go for it!!! Tater tots go with everything, lol!
A fun summer 5K + pizza sounds perfect! Too bad that crappy comedian got thrown into the mix.