Race Recap: Dairy Aire 5K

Dairy Aire 5K | Chino, CA

March 5, 2016

The Dairy Aire is the last of the Chino Triple Crown series (Reindeer Romp & Run for Russ being the other two) and a repeat of the Reindeer Romp course. Also home for 5K PR after PR for me, so I'm a little biased towards loving this course. Fast, flat and the best chocolate milk aferward. You can check out my 2014 and 2015 recaps too - 2015 was my PR until 2015's Reindeer Romp (advantages to running the same course over and over again!). We had quite a crew for this one again - a lot of us completing the Triple Crown Challenge, so that was pretty awesome (especially as they FINALLY had actual medals for us).

As apparently is now the trend, the cow takes on a new persona each year - last year was the punk cow and this year he was a superhero, so superhero garb was encouraged. Yes please! Jacky (my personal sparkly skirt closet) let me borrow her blue skirt and her mom made me an awesome sparkly red cape to sparkle and fly my way through the race.

Batman v. Superman. We both one for cuteness, duh.

My only beef (pun intended... you know... cow-themed race) is that this is a gun start, but mat finish. So last year while my final time was 25:07 per the race results, I had 25:00 dead flat on my watch, so this one of those races where you go by your Garmin, not the official results, no matter how official they may be! ;)

We got to the race about 7:50 and got to see the kids' run take off. The 5K started at 8:15 so we had time to get settled, get in some pre-race photos (mandatory) and wait for Doug's sister to bring our bibs. Advantages to small local races is showing up 20 minutes before gun time! Sometimes, it's such a refreshing race morning to be able to just roll in and go!

Mile 1: 7:31 Fast. A little too fast. You'd think I'd have learned my lesson from the Reindeer Romp in December where I ran my fastest mile ever in the first mile of that 5K, but no... I clearly did not!
Mile 2: 8:20 That's a little better. I was huffing a little,  but this was my first run post-Phoenix, so I took that into stride but I felt good.
Mile 3: 8:20 That's how you do a 5K, Megan. Be a little more consistent next time and you won't putter out!

Garmin: 24:55

Official:

I ran a 25:00 last year and that wasn't post-marathon, so I'm totally cool with that. Only last year, that was good enough for a first AG win and now it's got me down to third! You never know who's gonna show up race morning, right?

And I was the only one of the three in costume!

We hung around for race awards (lots of IERC reppin' in the age group awards!) and collected ALL THE MEDALS.

#runmatchy™  on point. 

And then mandatory post-5K breakfast, haircut, and a little self love (NAPS!) on a Saturday afternoon. It was quite refreshing to just to get to go home after a race this weekend - not a hotel, not some other bed, but our home, our couch, and I had a very satisfying hour-long nap!

If you dressed up as a superhero for a race, who would you dress up as?