I saw my shadow...

At this year's Groundhog Run!

I think that's a good sign, right?! Although with the Second Coming of the Snowpocalypse, who really knows?!

Sunday was the Groundhog Run in the caves at the Hunt Midwest Subtropolis.

This is one of my all-time favorite events. If you can handle the rotten-egg fart smell at some points on the course, you'd love it to. Its your only chance to run in 70 degrees in the middle of winter in Kansas City.

My race buddy had something come up and wasn't able to race with me, so I was a bit bummed. Luckily with a plea on facebook, I found a buddy to take her bib and join me in the caves!

Pre-race, I ran into my Girls on the Run pal Jackie and got to catch up while we waited for the 5K to end.

Here's my race buddy Mike, me, Jackie and Mike's friend String Bean Dean - pre-race. You can see the cave looking stuff that proves where we were running in the background!

So, the race story. Well, first off, if you've been reading for a while - you know I've been a huge winter slacker and have been doing pretty much Jack for a while now. Needless to say 6.2 miles was going to feel damn near like a marathon!

We started at the back of the pack, just after the gun due to the portapotty line. This is my favorite place to start a race, because then I get to be the passer instead of the passed. I actually felt pretty decent for the first lap, and I knew we were keeping a decent clip. Probably right around 11:00s. I was hoping to negative split, like I usually try to do (though I don't always succeed). We walked the aid stations and in the second lap took a couple other walk breaks. With Mike's encouragement, I kept pushing long after I wanted to.

Keep in mind that Mr. Encouragement is the same guy who on Saturday did the Polar Plunge in a Speedo and a Superman cape. He did raise about $1000 for Special Olympics though. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

Anyway, Superman kept me running and pushing and huffing and puffing around every bend in the caves. Once we hit the 6 mile mark and I could see an end in sight, I picked it up as best I could and tried to out sprint him to the finish line. Maybe that's why my knee hurts a bit today...

Anyway, here's us afterwards, all sweaty, with Gus the Groundhog in the background. I give this race a big thumbs up!

My official time:

95th in my AG

1:06:42 total time
10:44 average pace.

Not too shabby.

Afterwards, I took a rest on the back of the ambulance waiting for the rest of Superman's firefighter crew to pack up and head to the Ameristar for brunch. Here's us with a big Gus on the way out....

So far, a wonderful morning. My favorite way to spend the weekend. That is, until we got to the smoke infested casino and I got sick! I completely cleaned out my system in the casino bathroom and told Mike we needed to hit the road pronto. As we found the on-ramp to the highway, I made him stop so I could continue to puke in the snow. Ugh. Seriously, not a fun way to enjoy your post-race high!

But I got home, showered and cuddled with my puppies for the rest of the day and woke up Monday feeling great! Phew!