5K Race Report

First, I feel as if I need to give some advice about how NOT to prepare for a race. NEVER eat Weight Watchers Fruities (candy) the night before a race. They have a laxative affect. That being said, I probably ran today as light as I could thanks to the Fruities! (Fruities = tooties!!). My other bad decision was to chug a 16 oz. Monster Energy Drink during the 30 minute drive to the race. Fortunately the porta-potties were readily available, so a half hour before the race I was all set...until I stood on the starting line waiting for the race to start. I felt like one of those old farts on the Avodart commercial. Fortunately, me jumping around waiting for the race to begin just appeared to be me warming up. Yes, I completed the run without stopping in the woods!
As far as the race itself, it was (keyword) FUN! Carlee, Anais, and Lindsay, I appreciate the reality check about having fun. Being a new 5K race, I expected a few glitches pre and post race, and there was. First, it was advertised that there was chip timing. There wasn't. There was a girl with a notebook writing down your number after you crossed the finish line. I'm not sure how, but my posted finish time is correct. The starting line was 2 blocks away from the finish line, which was at a restaurant. I had no idea where it was, so I followed the crowd of runners. Speaking of crowd, there was none. By none, I mean absolutely, positively no one along the course cheering. But that's OK. Some dude on a bullhorn gave us our race instructions. Problem was, the bullhorn wasn't loud. The woman standing next to me WAS loud as she talked to her friends and drowned out what bullhorn dude was saying. As you guys know, the pre-race instructions are usually common sense anyhow. All I heard was something about orange cones, which I assumed was "Stay to the left of the orange cones or you'll get run over by a passing car and die a horrible death." I made sure I was ahead of as many possible "obstacles" (slow runners) as I could be. No offense to anyone, but don't line up near the front if you're going to finish in over 30 minutes. The race itself went well. The course was flat, and the entire time I kept reminding myself to relax and have fun. I pushed myself, but didn't overdo it since I'm not in my best running condition. The best part of the course was the quarter mile or so on a cinder trail through the woods. Funny thing about running and wearing my Garmin. The one mile marker was at 9/10 of a mile, and the 2 mile marker was at 1.9 miles, according to my Garmin. My Garmin beeped as I crossed the finish line, indicating I had run exactly 3 miles. Yet the race was a 5K (3.1 miles) race. I guess that's what happens with a new race on a course that's not a certified course. I'm not complaining...My heel is so good now that I even forget that I once had an injury. I placed 79th out of 244 runners. I came in 2nd in my division, and I beat my goal time of 23:44 with a 23:41 time. My goal has always been to place in the top 3 in my division. It was great to hear my name called during the awards presentation, and have my fellow runners clapping for me. I'll gladly accept the 2nd place award of four 2 oz. bags of Brioni coffee and a "Hotel California Tequila" t-shirt. Yes everybody. I'm a winner. A winner of the most bizarre race awards that I've ever seen. But seriously, I'm happy as can be. The coffee tastes great, my son loves the t-shirt, my co-worker will love the shot glass I received for finishing in the top 300 (everybody did, since only 244 persons finished!), and best of all I have an ass kicking race shirt. No, it's not a "tech t-shirt," but it's "cool." If I can figure out how to take a picture of it and post it here, I will. A few random thoughts: 1) It can't possibly be comfortable for a woman to run wearing tight white shorts and a black thong. Yup, "tighty-whitey" finished near the end of the race. 2) Every race has the guy (It's always a guy) who comes storming down towards the finish line making lots of high pitched breathing noises with a strong finishing kick. Dude, where were you the first 3 miles? Sorry, but if you have that much left for the finish, you're not pacing yourself well. 3) Where were the frozen (non-alcoholic) Margarita's that we were promised? There was fruit, water, salsa and chips, but NO frozen margarita's. I don't care that it was cloudy. I wanted a frozen margarita brain freeze. 4) I ran without listening to my music. I just wanted to give it a try. I think for 5K races I may keep doing it. The race goes by quickly anyhow.