On Sunday Nolan and I ran the Valentine’s Hearts “R” Running 5k! It was Nolan’s first 5k in over 8 years and he did great! I’m so proud of him for sticking with the couch-to-5k training and showing up even when the weather was calling for a wintery mix at race start.
We don’t typically do anything large to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Our anniversary is the end of February, so we usually just wait until then to do all the romantic things. Like a tropical vacation or a weekend getaway. Some years it’s just a heart-shaped pizza at Papa Murphy’s. But this year, shortly after adding this race to my 2019 race list, I convinced Nolan to do it with me!
The Course
The course was an out and back with one water stop. It started a few blocks from Braxton Brewery, went over the Clay Wade Bailey Bridge. The same bridge from the Jingle Bell Run and part of the course is the same as the Hudy 14k. It’s a small race (limit 450) so I understand needing a simple route to close down. It doesn’t mean that I like running through the industrial parts of Cincy. The weather held out for us, but there were a few slick spots on the bridge.
Since Nolan didn’t complete the entire couch-to-5k program, our plan was to do 6 minutes run, 2 minutes walk. In reality we did 9+ minutes run, 1 minute walk. We did a great job pacing ourselves on the runs and had just enough to kick it up a few notches at the end. It’s funny how much better you perform on race day! We finished together at 35:25 with smiles on our faces. The few blocks walk back to Braxton were the perfect cool down.
We met back at Braxton with Melanie and James where I broke my dry February. 🙁 I was a day shy of 3 weeks. I was just so happy and proud of Nolan for having a good race. (Melanie PR’d too!) And come on, the beer (and pasta) was free as part of the registration fee!
