I have no doubt I was the best dressed with my pink Sparkle Skirt that matched my pink hair perfectly….I was by far not the best runner. Woke up early after a late night (Race Walking workshop the prior evening) and headed out to Gas Works park praying it didn’t rain. It didn’t. We ran into a few friends who were all running the 15k. Not there was much of a difference, we were all just standing around. At some point, a horn sounded and we figured that was the start. Off we headed, sticking together until my shoe came untied. As I moved off the course, my shoelace got stuck in a grate and I had to yank it lose before tying it and getting back into it. Off we went. We were in the back of the pack thanks to my shoelace, but that’s fine. At the 15k split point, everyone turned left. We went right. We were basically last. Seems everyone was running the 15k. We made it a point to pass as many people as possible so we wouldn’t be dead last. I stopped to pee at about the halfway point and walked in on a clown. Yes a clown. There was a tall clown in a portajohn, adjusting her clown shorts. After waiting, peeing, and getting back on the course, we weren’t last, but we had some catching up to do. We ran, we walked, I did my imitation of race walking, we basically crawled up hills, and we went and went and went. We worked a 3/1 fast/slow interval all the way to the end. We weren’t fast. We weren’t last. Only one of our friends running the 15k passed us. So not too bad. In the end there were 21 people behind us and 80 ahead of us. Not bad for the first race of the season. Hopefully next time we can get closer to that 10 minute mile mark!
