Discovery Run!

Saturday morning was so much fun on many, many levels, and absolutely good for my soul. I needed every part of it. I accidentally wrote a race date wrong on my calendar. I thought the race was Saturday but it ended up being last weekend. I was supposed to do the Fall 50 Relay last weekend with some friends. I was bummed I had to back out, so I wanted to do a 5k that weekend…only to find out I wrote dates down wrong…

I frantically looked online and found Saturday’s race. I emailed a friend about race day registration being an option (which it was). However, I wasn’t sure if I’d make it during the specified time. She gave me her number and said to text/call. I had a plan (thanks to some amazing, flexible coworkers) and figured things out to be able to do it.

I haven’t signed up for races this year for a few reasons: 1) life has thrown way too many punches my way, and I’ve had to adapt and truly live life unplanned. If I could do a race, I signed up the day of and did it. 2) my training isn’t there and I simply run to run. I run with a waist belt thingy with two dogs harnessed in. Running with dogs isn’t easy; it’s a workout in and of itself. I run with no time goals or expectations, which has been a huge relief. If I’m able to get out there and run, I do. If not, I’m no longer hard on myself about missing this or that. After my revision surgery last fall, I truly stepped back and listened to my body.

~~I did my usual preparations the night before… Drink lots of water, stay off my feet, don’t drink beers, and go to bed early…~~

Scratch that.

When you haven’t been racing in a while, there’s no usual preparations. It was more like me running around here and there to find the race belt, then figuring out which box the arm warmers are in, and trying to remember everything I needed. Not all of my workout stuff is unpacked and organized (clearly). Plus, I had to find everything to rock my 80’s outfit of choice!

“Flat me” ready to go…

I was a little bummed when it start sprinkling out. All of that prep to crimp my hair and poof it!!! I got to the race site, and booked it to the tent to register. Once I got there, I bumped into Kim and Julie. They were running the 15K and tried talking me into running with them. That would have been a bad idea! I watched them take off and ran back to my car. The 15K started at 9, and the 5 miler started at 9:45 am. I had plenty of time to finish getting ready and relax.

Today was refreshing and exhilarating. I ran the 5 mile race with Sara, and had a blast the entire time. Our splits were amazing…until one mile we ran like a bat outta h-e-double L! It felt exciting running to run and race. This part of me has been missing for a while. I walked away extremely happy with my race. Honestly, the longest run I did ‘recently’ was four miles…back in August…

After the race, there was a huge after-part with lots of delicious beer! I got to hang out with friends and catch up. Gosh, I’ve missed these people!!! It was a reminder to not get so caught up in the monkey wrenches of life and set time aside for people that mean a lot to me.

When I got home, I took Bravo for a 2.30 mile run and it didn’t suck like I expected it to. And, my splits weren’t terrible…except when Bravo ran around me multiple times and I had get myself untangled. Yeah, he thinks it’s a game now!!