HERSHEY PARK HAPPPY……so today was the Hershey 10k – except instead of smelling like chocolate – it smelled more like worms as it was raining like crazy when we got there and drizzled for the entire run.  It wasn’t bad though – it actually felt nice as I warmed up from running and kept the pollen down so I didn’t have to worry about allergies!

This race ALMOST didn’t happen for me as on Tuesday I realized I couldn’t find my confirmation email.  I went on the website and sure enough I couldn’t find my registration info – I was freaking out.  Usually this race sells out fairly early so I was really worried I wasn’t going to get a spot.  I have no idea what happened – either when I registered it didn’t go through correctly or I thought I registered and actually didn’t.  This was at 10:00am and registration closed noon that day – how crazy that I just happened to be looking and realized this!!  So I registered right away and managed to secure my spot and get a confirmation email.  WHEW (Also for my 15k coming up at the end of this month I couldn’t find that confirmation email either – I managed to contact someone involved with the event who confirmed I was registered and good to go – yikes!  I really need to make an email folder with all these emails – which is what I was trying to do when I realized I didn’t have these 2)

So early yesterday morning I met my friend Amy and we were off to Hershey PA – the sweetest place on earth.  It seemed like the closer we got, the harder it rained and I was worried about running around in horrible weather, but there was nothing we could do about it.  There wasn’t a lot of cars when we arrived at 6:20am and we were wondering if people were bailing due to the weather.  We walked through the downpour to get our race packets and shirts and then booked it back to the car to wait out the rain a bit until closer to start time.  What a difference from Friday’s weather which was extremely humid and gross – I tried to go for a run and went 1 mile when I got side stitches on BOTH sides and had to stop after another 1/2 mile – I didn’t even know that could happen!!

Around 7:10am we started to walk to the start line – did a little stretching and got ready to RUN!  More people showed up right before the race started – I’m sure they were all just waiting out the rain as well.  Luckily right before we started running the rain became a drizzle and for the rest of the run it was either a light rain or drizzle – I mean we were definitely soaked, but it could have been a lot worse!  I decided to wear my old running shoes because I couldn’t stand the thought of my new sneakers getting wrecked already!  🙂

The route of this run was the same as last year and I absolutely LOVE this run – it’s great for your 1st 10k – a few hills, but not too bad.  You run on some roads for the majority of the race, but end going through the park and then through the parking lot – back to where you started and then end in Giant Center where you get your finishers medal and a bag with snacks in it.

I was really happy with how my run went – I didn’t get a single side stitch, kept a consistent pace and was even actually able to talk to Amy as we ran (which I have a hard time doing) I even shaved 4 minutes off my run time from last year – wahoo!  🙂  The run/walk/run system really works well for me to keep my asthma in check and actually my legs feel pretty good today!  I always watch people around me because the people who do this seem to always be around each other the entire time – I’ll pass them, then they pass me – yup, there’s the lady with the blue shirt, there’s the girl with the cool running pants.  We even had a girl come up to us during the race and tell us she was using US as pacers – “Every time you pass me I try to catch you!” she said to me – it never occurred to me that people might be looking at me the same way I look at them – I thought that was really cool.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made race wonderful!  🙂

So other than a bit of rain and trying not to mush any worms as we went, it was a really great day!  🙂  Here are a few pics from the run – and check out my instagram page for a few quick videos I took!

 

 On a side note my sister ran the Philly Hot Chocolate 15k sat and someone stole a bunch of medals from the finish line so she didn’t get her finishers medal until someone said “Here you can have mine – I have one from last year.”  How crazy, but apparently this is a thing that happens every now and then because when I googled it someone stole 1,300 medals from the Chicago marathon and other races – not sure why someone would want them?  Also if they try to sell them, who would want a medal from a race you didn’t participate in??  Just weird and sad!!