Freaky 5K

I needed a 5k to do in October. So far this year, I have done at least one in March, April, May, June, July, August, and September. I had one planned for November. January, February, and December are just too cold. I found the Freaky 5k in Appleton among others. It was on Halloween and it didn’t require me to drive an hour or more for a race. Then another racing friend of mine told me there were killer hills andit made the Firecracker in Kaukauna look easy. I don’t do hills.

When we had our fantasy football draft in August, I jokingly mentioned to my sister-in-law that she should come do the Freaky 5k with me on Halloween. It has killer hills. She has never done a 5k before but recently has started running for FUN. She thought it was a great idea and wanted to sign up for it. All I’m thinking was what did I get myself into…..

The weather all week was gorgeous. The forecast for the race was RAIN. I did 1 race in the rain this year, I really didn’t want to do another.  Being the Freaky 5k on Halloween, costumes were encouraged. I seriously thought about going on as a referee until the forecast called for rain. There was no way I was running 3.1 miles in the rain in wet knickers.  However, I learned my lesson from the last soggy race I did, wear a poncho. Luckily we had 2 ponchos and I could give one to my sister in law. Who cares if it was a Jacksonville Suns poncho.  It kept us dry.

After parking several blocks away and having to walk in the rain to the starting line at Pierce Park, there was at least a pavilion to stand in until race time. Weather wise I still think the Beer Run was worse than this. I wasn’t wringing water out of my jacket during the race. The poncho really did help.

I kept with my sister-in-law for about the first eighth mile or so and then I had to walk. She kept right on running. I did my normal race routine of running/walking.

The “killer” hills weren’t as bad as I expected. There were 2 of them in the entire race. You start at Pierce Park, go down past the Yacht Club, and back up around Xavier High School, and back to past the Yacht Club up to Pierce Park. The first hill we had to go up was pure torture which was surprising since it was still in mile 1. It was steep and it nearly killed me…and I walked up it. As I trudged along, I had to remember I still had to go up the hill at the finish. I tried to pace myself to make sure I walked up that hill. That hill w

asn’t nearly as bad as the first one and I even ran up some of it. It was more of a gradual steep incline.

Despite the weather and the hills, I still finished in 42 minutes 15 seconds about 30 seconds or so off my personal best. My sister-in-law beat me by exactly 10 minutes. People say this is one of the worse courses for a 5k. I may have to agree but it wasn’t that bad. Holly said I would regret doing the Freaky 5k but I really don’t. I actually kind of enjoyed the challenge of it. Was I worried that Holly said it nearly added 9 minutes to her time. Sure but as long as I didn’t finish last and I was done in under an hour, I didn’t care. I was really happy with my time. Guess what, I’ll probably suffer through it again… maybe even in costume next year.