Below is a race recap  by one of our newest members, Danielle Douglass! Danielle is looking forward to running more races in the future with the Steeplechasers. Ordinarily, she trains for obstacle course races, but she is willing to try new things, such as this fun and local 5k. Continue reading to hear about Danielle’s experience running the YMCA of Frederick County Lucky Leprechaun 5k/10k/1 mile!

This was a great start to my 2023 running season, though not an obstacle course race, I had a great time.  Back in December I completed their 10k Santa Run in 30 some degree weather and vowed never to be that dumb again.  I hadn’t trained for a race, let alone a 10k in December.  The last sort of run I did was at the beginning of September when I finished my last obstacle course race for the season.  

But, I saw this pop up and figured, March… should be good, but I won’t be as crazy and I’ll stick to the 5k.  You know, just in case.  I was very glad for this.  It was cold, but the cold wasn’t the issue.  The winds were strong and fierce.  I would say this was probably one of the only downfalls of the race.  Overall, the race was flat with 2 small hills and 2 turn around points.  The 10k was 2 laps of the 5k, and the one mile was half a mile out and back.  

I was anticipating a slow race due to the wind, but this time I started consistently training about 2 weeks prior to the race.  Before that, when it was nice out I would run in the evening with my dog for ½ – 1 mile just to help him burn some puppy energy and start to get my own cardio back.  I was pleasantly surprised when I crushed the time I thought I would run by 5-10 minutes! The course went around the YMCA in Urbana and the High School campus.  

I ended up having a great race, and managed a time that was comparable to when I ran cross country in high school.  I was able to snag 2nd in my age group, 5th female, and 19th overall.  I know it was a relatively small race, but everything about it felt good, and even though it was minimal training, I felt great after the race, while my brother did not feel as great.  

There were less strollers than in December, but the wind was stronger for this race and they may have stayed at home.  There were 204 participants for the 5k, 103 for the 10k, and I was unable to see how many were in the 1 mile run.  Looking over the results, They recorded the race and have a link to YouTube that starts a few seconds before each participant’s finish which was really neat!

I think my least favorite part of this race was that the finish line was a 90 degree turn with less than 50 feet to the finish line.  If you are competitive, it was hard to give that last burst of energy to cross the finish line.  Since I convinced my brother to run with me, we were very competitive at the end, but that was a tough turn.  

Overall, I am planning to do this race again if they hold it next year.  It was fun and low-key.  The turnout was good, and probably would’ve been better if it was slightly warmer.  I now have a good benchmark to use in my training for future races in the 2023 season.