An extremely long report about a race I kind of raced: Today I ran the best race in Tallahassee- The Palace Saloon 5k- completely out of shape. Well almost. To be fair I am averaging about 15 miles a month, or 3 miles a week. I have run only 2 miles in the past two weeks. I wasn't going to run because the race is super competitive (as far as a local race is concerned) and I am also disappointed because a few months ago my goal was to PR here. Things have obviously changed due to sickness, job searching, and dissertationing. But I was guilted into running by a friend of mine who needed one more person on her girl's team. Okay, enough excuses. With absolutely 0 expectations and the only goal to not be absolutely miserable (although I doubted I would achieve that one either) I set off with the 1200 runners at 8am. There are only three turns during the race, which starts at a park and ends at a bar. I took off with a friend of mine who is recovering from a nagging injury, and at our first mile she said "about 7 minutes." (You know you are out of shape when you forget to bring your watch to a race). I just laughed and told her I decided to hold this pace as long as I could- having no idea how long that would be. It really is great starting a race and not feeling at all nervous. No crazy goals of 18:45 caused me to lose sleep last night. I didn't warm up, or put on my racing flats or watch. However, something got to me during the race. There were all kinds of girls around me that I didn't know. There was a group of girls with bows in their hair in front of me. The competitor in me had to do something about that :) Mile 2- 6:54. My first sub-7 mile of the year!! Woot woot. We hit the only real hill in the race, charged up, coasted down, and finished in just over 21 minutes. This was way better than I ever thought I could do. Something about the Palace Saloon 5k doesn't let you run it easy, even if you are in bad shape. It was also way more fun than I expected. Running with Olivia was great, and beating your expectations is always invigorating. Also, the weather was absolutely perfect. The post race party was as much fun as I remembered last year being, and I got to hang out with all of the Gulf Wind-ers that I have been missing this year. I ended up getting 5th in my age group too, which I was very excited about because they give away cool pint glasses. Bonus! What a great going away prize before the big move in a couple of months. This race made me remember how great it is to run, especially in Tallahassee. I will really miss Gulf Winds because of the awesome races and the wonderful combination of camaraderie, love of running, and competitive spirit. This race also reminded me how thankful I should be. It is easy to get down on yourself when you are not able to run your fastest, but I am truly blessed that I can not only do this, but pull out a respectable performance off of very minimal training. Congrats to Herb for another well-directed race. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday! | 