Race Report: Jingle Bell 5K

For the second year in a row, my wife and I ran the Jingle Bell 5K in Harrisburg, and for the second year in a row, I recorded my personal 5K record there. I had a bit of technical support this year; I used the Virtual Training Partner on my Garmin to try to keep myself under a 24 minutes. It's a neat feature. It basically is like running against another runner, a tireless, mechanized foe who is impervious to cold and hills.

(Don't want to get deleted? Outrun the robot.)

The two-lap course was quite a bit hillier than I remembered it, and it was interesting to see exactly which points I fell behind the pace I'd hoped to set, measured in terms of how far I was behind the Virtual Training Partner, and at which points I made up ground. (Basically, I found that if I could keep pace on the steep hills, I could open up a lead on the flat and downhill stretches). I ran hard the whole way, and came in at 23:42:71, beating my previous record by 28 seconds and finishing ahead of the Virtual Training Partner.

Take that, Garmin! I kicked your butt. I know, I know...you're a wristwatch. Of course you don't literally have a butt.

(After the race, we were attacked by a creepy Hershey Bar creature.)

(C. finished with her 2nd-fastest time ever. This has been a good race for us two years in a row. Studies show that it's because we have to run fast to keep from freezing.)

(Earn your....well, you know.)