Everyone's a Winner

 

On Sunday morning, I ran in my first official road race.

Before we go any further, let's go ahead and get the disclaimers out of the way - it was only a 5k, (which, yes, I know a lot of people can do in their sleep)  almost all of the 5,000 participants sign up more for the fun and Irish/St. Patrick's day theme than the actual competitive race piece, etc., etc., 

But still.  You guys.  I ran a flippin' road race!  Completely of my own volition!

Were I to sit down, even a year ago, and make a list of things I would most likely never due in my lifetime I imagine somewhere near the top might be:

-- Get any part of my body, beyond my ears, pierced.

-- Participate in a roller derby or anything even remotely resembling a roller derby.

-- Run any sort of true distance.  Um, at all.  Never mind the competitive part.

Cut to a night out with one of my friends in January, me on my third glass of wine, rambling along about my new found obsession with the Couch to 5k app/program. 

"We should run a 5k together, sometime."  she says, earnestly.  "Seriously.  It'd be good motivation for us."

I take a sip of my wine, sort of shrug/nod in a rather non-committal fashion.

"Uh, yeah.  Maybe.  I'm, um, not very fast you know."

"Please.  I'm not either.  I haven't run competitively since high school."

 

Which is more or less how I found myself in possession of a registered race number on Sunday morning.  Admittedly, I was not nearly as prepared as I would have liked - in fact I had not run a single step in the week leading up to the race (but I did a lot of yoga! at least I was limber!) though thankfully that whole not running ahead of time (snow. ice.) turned out to not be the end of the world.  Our one friend Lauren, a true marathoner that totally sprinted ahead of us, agreeing to meet us at the finish line when all was said and done.  But my other friend Erin and I kept a good pace together, and while we won't exactly be breaking any records, we both crossed the finish line with a somewhat respectable time.

Oh, and we got medals.  So did the other 4, 997 runners who participated.  Still.  Kelli = a road race, a medal for running?  I swear sometimes I don't even recognize myself.

I'd do it all again of course, if for the atmosphere alone.

Well, that and the guilt free beer and cheeseburger I had post-run too of course.