Diva Dash 5K Recap

I was sent the link to a 5K race - The Diva Dash - about a month ago.  It was an inaugural all women's 5K.  You got a women's technical tee and cupcakes at the finish line - what could be better than that?  I immediately sent the link to several friends - hey everyone doesn't this sound like fun - who's in.  Within a few minutes I got several responses back - it'll be too cold, we are out of town......etc, etc.  No immediate takers, but I decided to keep it on the radar.

Then I injured my back and decided I wouldn't do it.  Then my back was feeling better, and all week I was waffling about doing the race.  I was planning a 3 or 4 mile run for Saturday anyway, but the weather was supposed to be cold....what should I do - I sent out a few last ditch efforts to get someone to do it with me - but no takers.  I just decided, I'm going to do it.  So last night after work I headed to packet pickup to sign up for the race.  I knew I would be doing it solo, but that was ok, I'm a big girl!

Packet pickup was in an unfinished office in an office complex with NO LIGHTS.  The only lights were from the hallway - no temporary lighting - just the "nightlight" from the hall.  It was weird.  And packet pickup - well they handed you an envelope with your chip, bib, and some race flyers - that was it - no goodies - no bag - just an envelope.  And the t-shirt - well since I waited to the last minute they were out - but the good news is they were ordering more and I should have it in 7 to 10 days.  I was seriously thinking about backing out at that point - if I wasn't going to get the t-shirt what was the point :)  So I headed home and hoped the forecast for tomorrow would be wrong.

Nope!  I woke about 5am and turned on the weather channel.  It was a balmy 25 degrees with 23 mph winds.  Wow, this was going to be awesome.  I had to borrow some running tights from my husband Jim - they were too small for him....I'm thinking to myself please, please let them fit me.  I do not want to be embarrassed when they are too small for me.  They fit - yeah!  So I ate my breakfast, bundled up and headed to the race.  See that picture of me below I'm sooooo excited to go!  (Note to self::  Woman with back injury should NOT be jumping - even for a fun blog photo.  My back was feeling a little twingy when I got in the car - uh oh).



So Excited!



It was a very small event - about 600 women were registered.  It was freezing cold. The race start was at a local shopping center.  One of the restaurants - Ingredient - was open and nice enough to let runners hang out inside where it was warm until the race started.  This was great.  Of course there were a few ladies in costume - I do love the costumes. 

She looks cold

The race seemed hilly to me, but I think that's just because I have been running on a treadmill for like 4 months and I hadn't ran in like a month.  My time was slow.....even slow for me.  But that was ok, I wasn't really pushing it.  My final Garmin Mileage was 3.19 and time of 38:32 - a super speedy pace of 12:04 per mile - and my official time will probably even be a bit slower.  So, not a stellar race for me, but in light of the weather and my back - I'll take it!  At least I got out there and did it.  Oh, and I was also signed up to do Jeff's (at Detroit Runner) Virtual 5K this weekend.  So technically, I was running 2 races at once - now that's pretty amazing!  So if I look at my time and split it between 2 races well then I'm down to a 6:02 mile - wow I didn't realize how fast I was!!



Final Garmin Time

 Finish line food - ok....yogurt, bananas and - a few cupcakes.  They were just small mini cupcakes, which was fine, but I got one of the last ones.  They ran out!  How do you run out?  You know you have an all women's event with 600+ women - you know that is going to be everyone's favorite item - you should have extras - LAME!  They did have cute race medals for the age group winners and some pretty nice raffle giveaways at the end.  I was too cold to stay and see if I won any of the raffle items.


Race Medals

As for my back.  It did ok.  I didn't have much pain while running, but when I stopped it was pretty sore - more sore than I hoped it would be.  I did some good stretching and headed home.  At home I took a relaxing bath, stretched some more, iced it down and took an anti inflammatory.  It feels ok now and I have a massage in a few hours so hopefully that will work out any lasting kinks.

That's about it - overall the race was OK, but not too bad for an inaugural event I suppose.  I'm still glad I did it.  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend running, swimming, biking or whatever it is you are doing!