Anyone who has been reading Scoot a Doot for awhile knows just how much I love the Atlantic City Race Series races. I usually participate in at least one race during their spring and fall series and I enjoyed doing their inaugural Bungalow Beach Run this year too.

I registered for the Atlantic City 10k back in 2017, right after registration opened. The 10k distance is one that I love and I got my personal best at this race in 2016 so I was looking forward to returning again.

However, in the past 6 months, there’s been a shift in dynamics in my house. My 13 year old son, who once upon a time only ran when “forced” during a Mother’s Day 5k, has come around to enjoying running. As you can imagine, I am shedding proud tears!

Lucas’ cross country season just ended and he’s been asking to run more races. It was a no-brainer to register him for the AC 5k because I’ve run these races many times and I knew he’d be good on the out and back course solo. Since he was going to be there and doing the shorter distance, I decided to switch down to the 5k at morning packet pickup (which we opted for during registration). The process was surprisingly easy and we quickly had our shirts, bags, and bibs.

Usually I run these races with friends and my family opts to stay home. However since Lucas was running the race too, my husband and younger kiddo decided to join us for the morning as our cheerleaders.

Atlantic City races don’t have corrals so lining up beforehand is always a crap-shoot. I looked for people who looked like they’d run around the same pace as Lucas and sent him up ahead. I asked the people I was standing near what pace they expected to keep to find my spot. The 5k and 10k runners start together. After the singing of the National Anthem, we were off.

The out and back was comfortable for me because I’ve done so many training runs along this boardwalk. My time was a consistent 12 minute mile, not my best or worst. A friend from the gym and I were chatting about how I have one speed, no matter it being a 5k or a half marathon. It’s something I need to work on but I wasn’t going into this race thinking that I’d be breaking any personal records so I’m pretty content with what I did.

Lucas looked strong when I saw him while I was on the out and he was on the back but he said that he got a cramp soon after we saw each other. He still finished strong and sprinted to the finish.

We joined the finisher’s party and grabbed the most delicious bagels (holy moly, they were so good!), snacks, goodies from vendors, and beer at 10am.

Well, I grabbed beer at 10am. Lucas got Gatorade.

Next on deck for me is the Rothman 8k in Philly. In December, we are doing the Light Run together (which is a local untimed night event to see the holiday lights). And then while I represent Healthy Kids Running Series, Lucas is going to do the Elf ‘n Cocoa 5k.

This year is flying by. I hope you have a very happy Halloween and I’ll see you in November!