Race to the Rocker race recap

Saturday I participated in my first Race to the Rocker and it was the first 4 mile race I had ever done.

We got some snow and yucky weather on Thursday night and in to Friday yep mother nature forgot to tell old man winter to get lost. The race was in a neighboring town about 30 miles from me. They had packet pickup and a race expo the night before the race. We had thought about going but the weather was iffy. However we got lucky and my friend's husband picked up our packets for us. I am glad they let him because I really wasn't wanting to make that drive in the nasty weather with my kids.

I didn't pick out what I was going to wear until the night before. So NOT like me usually I know at least a week ahead of time however the weather wasn't making that easy. The race started at 9 so we decided to meet at the ambulance base at 8 and ride together.

I woke up wide awake way way to early but since everyone in the house was sleeping I decided to go ahead get ready and sneak out. I knew that Laurie her oldest son and I were had planned on doing the race but at the last minute her husband (my boss at my new job) was going to do it with us. Yep I was a bit nervous to say the least!!!!

We rode to the race together which was nice kept my nerves down somewhat. We arrive to realize this was a very competitive race series and honestly had no clue there were so many competitive racers locally!

The race started right on time and there were around 1000 people in the race. They announced that the first person to finish the 4 miles in less than 20 minutes would get $250.00 in cash. In my mind I was like holy cow can someone really run that far in that amount of time. Yep one guy did it in 19:xx!!

Can you tell I am freezing.... I knew once we got started I would be hot and sweaty so I toughed it out without a coat on.

The first mile seemed to take forever the 4 of us stayed right with each other talking and watching the others. They decided their goal would be to finish and not be last I honestly didn't have a goal I knew I could walk 4 miles with no problem but still didn't want to be at the back of the pack.

By mile 1.5-2 I looked at Laurie and said I thought you said this was a flat course... It was hill after hill after hill and I have not worked on hills oh since my half marathon in October!

The first water stop I ran in to a friend I hadn't seen since 2003 when she was my maid of honor in my wedding. And if I would have been thinking I would have got a picture however I was froze and shocked to see her along the course.

We talked quite a bit about our Random Acts of Kindness and the fund and how to get more people involved to spread the word. While we were walking a lady behind me asked me if I came all the way there from Vichy. I had forgot I had my Vichy Fire Dept shirt on and I'm guessing she thought Vichy was a long way from Cuba...

Mile 3 I was glad to know we were close to the end there wasn't any spectators along the course however it was a pretty road to go down just wasn't much to keep your mind off the miles and HILLS.

When we rounded the last corner we could see the big rocker that was the finish line and I had not bothered to check my time at all my GPS on my Nike app wasn't picking up right and said I had only went .63 miles when we were at mile 2! I knew Bryan had told us we were holding at a 17min mile earlier on. I didn't honestly care about my time I was doing this for fun with a friend and we went at her pace.

Bryan, Laurie and I crossed the finish line together with a time of 1:09 it was his first race as a participant and the first one she had done in a long time. I was happy for them to have done it and glad to have been there with them. Her son came across not long after us and well it was his first race and he's hooked already looking for more races to do.

We stood and watched some of the others come in and then had a cookie and Gatorade. We found some fliers for more up coming races and have our sights on one in June. Its a 80's themed run in St. Louis looks like a lot of fun and well the 3 adults were children of the 80's and her son loves anything 80's.

It was still cold and cloudy once we finished but glad it didn't snow!

Here is the race shirt and my bib. Apparently they did bib numbers by you last name because all of us signed up exact same day...

Is it a race I would do again maybe it was very well organized had a nice big area at the finish line to not feel super crowded.

Was I happy with my finish time ah NO not really when I look at my age group results however I am still grouped with 19-29 and well some of those girls were crazy fast.

I may do one race next month before I turn 30 to be my farewell to that age group and move on to a different one.