Pork Chop Trot race report

Yes! It's Pork Chop Trot Day!

Actually, though, I didn't consume any pork chops. They weren't quite ready to go by the time we left the race, but from what I heard, there were going to be plenty of pork chops gobbled later in the weekend at the festival (plus a mention of fresh sweet corn being served at tomorrow's town picnic, which was almost enough to make me drive right back tomorrow morning for it).

Anyway, let's start from the beginning. I was googling around for 5K and 10K races coming up, and I found a 5K with the irrestistible dual appeal of being in a community near my grandma's house and being named the Pork Chop Trot. I told my brother, who is training specifically for a one-mile race coming up, and he was up for it. Josh, my brother, Wish and I packed up this morning and headed up 94 for the festivities.

We got there just in time to check in and do a short warm-up. My brother and I were both happy to see more people milling around the start area than we expected - I think there were somewhere between 100-150 people in the race, which was a run/walk.

Here's the view of the start, at an intersection maybe 200 yards away from the packet pick-up space:

The gun whistle sounded, and we were off. For the first half-mile, there were a ton of small kids around me who had set out at the blistering pace for their little legs. They were having a blast disregarding the warnings from their parents to pace themselves, and their energy made the start a blast for me, too. (I'm still trying to curb the RUN AS FAST AS POSSIBLE mentality for the first mile myself, so I could relate.)

The first mile was a gentle downhill on a paved road followed by a left turn into a one-lane dirt road sandwiched between two cornfields, with the corn above my head. That was when the sun came out full-force and the breeze disappeared and the race got a little tougher, but even in the midst of that, I loved that section. It was so different from my normal running environment, even though it's par for the course if you're a runner in that part of Minnesota.

Then we turned onto a two-lane dirt road, and then back onto the paved road that would take us to the finish. The temperature must have climbed into the mid-70s during the race and I forgot to grab a hat or visor, so I faded a little bit more than I wanted in the full sun. But I also knew right where we were in relation to the finish line, which helped keep my energy up.  And then I saw it come into view!

Hello! Happy to see you!

Can you see the pig with little running shoes on?  That's a key detail.  I was happy with my effort today - a little ways away from my PR, but not too far.

One of my other favorite parts of the day was how well Wish did and all of the friends that he made. It seems like he must have hung out with 75 percent of the children in attendance, and he was so sweet and relaxed. Josh was alone for most of these interactions and reported that he learned a lot about the town's dog population, the local schools and the kids' race.

Wish just sat around looking like this:

And after the race, he just laid down and took in the scene:

Then I just wanted a photo with my brother, who got an age group medal for his great race. I said "How about in this little clearing?" and we went over there, and then Josh said, "You mean behind that tree?" and took a photo anyway.

Another try, please, this time in the sun:

In kind of crazy and happy news, I was the first female to finish, which has never happened to me before. (Yeep!) I got a gift certificate to a running shop and a medal, which Wish promptly wanted to try on:

I would love to come back for next year's Pork Chop Trot. The race organizers did a wonderful job, the energy was great, and I loved seeing all of the families that came out to run together or support their runners. Running this race also comes with the monster added bonus of post-race brunch at Grandma's. This, simply, was one of the nicest mornings.