Never trade what you want the most...: Chickie's and Pete's Boardwalk 5k Race Recap

This past weekend hubby and I headed to Atlantic City for the inaugural Chickie's and Pete's Boardwalk 5k. Honestly, it was really an excuse to spend the weekend in Atlantic City. LOL!

We headed down on Friday for packet pick-up. For months they stated no day-of packet pick-up so since we live 4 hours away {without rush hour/shore traffic} we decided to take the day and head down early hoping to miss all the above. We arrived about 12:30 p.m. and made it to packet pick-up about 1:00 p.m. which was held on the second floor of Chickie's and Pete's restaurant. It was very organized and you went from station to station to pick up each of your items - bib number {which we already had via email}; plastic bag to hold items; bib and cup; ID check for the beer garden; and t-shirt. It went very smoothly. We then decided to grab lunch there as we were hungry. Lunch was yummy and because we were running the 5k, one of the perks were free Crab Fries - their specialty.

Saturday morning we were up bright and early, around 6:30 a.m. to get ready. Our hotel was booked through Groupon and was a bit further away than we thought. Not a big deal, we just needed about 30 minutes to walk to the start line. We arrived on-time...with enough time to get a photo!

It was a beautiful morning! I can't even explain how gorgeous! The temperatures were in the 60s and there was a nice, cool breeze. How do you get that in August??? I can't believe how lucky we were. I had been nervous about this race honestly all because of temperature. I hate running in the heat. So lucky!

We saw the Crab Fry Guy, but he was so popular we couldn't get a photo with him. He did pose for me though.

Knowing we weren't going to win any awards for speed, we lined up towards the back. This was hubby's first post-surgery 5k! No matter what our time was, it would be a win!

The race had a wave start and we didn't start off for about 8 minutes. It was fine. As long as there were crab fries and beer when we arrived back! The course was an out and back along the boardwalk which we knew. That is not my favorite type of course, but eh. It's only 3.1 miles. The only problem I have with the AC races is they do not close off the boardwalk for them, which means people out for a stroll, other runners, bicyclists, etc. are all out there trying to do their thing while you're trying to run a race. They had one water stop which was set up in the middle of the boardwalk so you had a chance at water on the way out and the way back. That was good.

We knew we were at the end of the racers, not the last people, but right up there. On the way back though, I decided to pick people off and try to speed up a bit. I believe on the return we picked off six groups of racers. Sadly, one group we passed turned around and passed us just before the finish line. LOL! But, that's ok. I felt better about myself after that. I at least could catch up with people who had passed me.

We finished the race in 45:27 {2 seconds slower than my slowest 5k}, but we finished! We did my half mile run/1 minute walk, which is way more running than hubby has been doing with his C25k plan, but he did great! He ran all six intervals!! We grabbed a bottle of water, then got in line for our free small crab fries. I'll be honest, the stomach did some flips about the idea of crab fries at nine in the morning, but hubby was excited. We stood in line and picked our free fries. Ate my first fry and it was the best post-race food evah. LOL!

Once we finished our fries, we hit the beer garden on the beach. We received one free beer with our registration, so we grabbed our light lager and enjoyed the gorgeous weather!