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I'm not fond of evening races but when the race starts/finishes at one of the most popular pubs in town, it's hard to say no. Work has left me in a deep funk. The 5K was an excuse to break free of the night shift blues and have fun. Nothing serious. I wore my garmin only because they were not recording our times, as far as I could tell. There was a race clock at mile 1 and the finish but no age group awards. Just free beer boots to the first 30 women/men. HOW COOL!
And it was one of the most fun 5Ks ever. Very few super serious runners looking stressed, running warm ups. Lots of groups from work, school, local running clubs who were running as a group. It's not that the usual fast people weren't there, it's just that they were relaxed and having fun, too.
After waiting an extra 10 minutes to finish registration (rumor was over 700 people for this first time event), we were off! I just ran fast but comfortable the whole way. Because this was an event for me, not a race, I wore my ipod. I started out way too fast, dropping down to 8:10s at one point. I didn't think I could hold it but this was not a race for worrying. When I got tired, I would slow down. No stress. Finished mile 1 in 9:15. Mile 2 was very amusing because this was where a lot of the cute skinny kids from those office groups realized they should have trained a little better. Lots of walking on their part. Near the turn around point I saw one girl walking, furiously texting on her phone, and a group of her friends running backwards. They were giving her no end of teasing about it. So I said, "there's no texting in a 5K. We're done in 10 minutes. Put the phone down and run." Her friends cheered. And she did finally put the phone down because she passed me a minute or so later, with another round of thanks from her friends. I let her go. Like I said, this was not the most hard core race on the calendar.
Then it was time to cruise to the finish. The large burrito I had for lunch came back to haunt me but a short walk followed by a very satisfying belch got me back on track. The 3 mile mark coincided with one of my favorite fast songs so I sprinted to the finish. 29:37. No beer boot for me. Maybe next year. A few months ago sub-30 took all my effort, now I'm running sub-30 without really trying. Nice progress in it's own way. There was a time when I dreamed of a sub 30 5K and now it's like "yeah, I can do that". Oh, how times change. Got to enjoy it while it lasts.
If I want _race_ these afternoon events, I'd definitely have to change things up but for now I enjoy having fun being around fellow runners.
2 comments:
So glad you enjoyed yourself!!
Great fun.
A little belch and beer at the end is my kind of race too.
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