Coogan's 5k

First race of the season...DONE!!! It was a Salsa, Blues and Shamrock 5k in Washington Heights (NYC). It was also my mom's first race EVER! The original plan was to take an early train into the city but Chris talked us out of that since it might take us close to 2 hours to get there! So - we drove. Only took about 40 minutes. The armory was the NYRR staging area for bib pick up - AWESOME armory with an indoor track...too bad the race wasn't in there since it was pouring outside!
My mom seemed calm which was great...I remember my first race and I pooped ALL morning, started crying and came close to having a panic attack :) She had bought us these bizarre shamrock umbrella hats - I thought the woman was nuts until we stood outside for 2 minutes in the cold rain. I put that dumb hat on pretty quick!
Race started - my mom & I broke apart at the start. Close to 8,000 runners on a narrow city street makes for some tight crowds. Took over 3 minutes to get to the start line...and the running was pretty slow to start. Couldn't even attempt to weave around people. It started to thin a little bit but really not much....the road was a slight incline for about the first mile...then a little downhill...then all of a sudden this hill that looked vertical! And LONG. I groaned and slowed down - along with ALL the people around me. It was cold, wet and slippery - now we have to get up this hill??? CRAP. I walked it. Clearly, hill training is in my future.
The water stations were horrible...too many people (including little kids) just stopping in front of the tables.
Somehow - all of a sudden - my mom was at my side. We finished the last 3/4 of a mile together...grabbed our bagel and walked to stand in the pouring rain outside the parking garage along with 50 other runners.
Not my best time but I didn't expect it to be. It was a wake-up call that it's time to get my ass out of winter shut down mode and T.R.A.I.N.