My family and I were planning on attending a parade together as part of a small town community festival last weekend when I learned there would also be an early morning 5K. Even though I know I'm a distance runner and certainly not a 5K runner... I decided to register 20 minutes before the race and then just finish the rest of my long run after the race. I told myself it would be fun! AND a good practice for race day conditions even if there were less than 200 runners and it was just part of my morning run. There would still be an anxious starting line, a gun start, cheering people and a finish line. As I was lining up at the start I noticed the high school cross country runners who I certainly wouldn't see again after the first few blocks (because I would be eating their dust - not the other way around!), I saw the serious runners with hands poised to push the start button on their watches and heart rate monitors (okay so I did this too) and I saw the walkers with strollers too - and I smiled and decided to just enjoy the run! Don't you love running in a new place? I do - its the best. As it turns out, I finished respectably, 2nd in my age division, and ran about 7 minute miles! Yep - that's me smiling at my ability to surprise myself; smiling because I'm done (not really, I still had 6 more miles to go for my training run, but hey - who's counting) and smiling because I was just happy - runners high I guess. I know that my half marathon and marathon goal times are much closer 9 minute miles, but in that moment I was still happy. Running a race for me isn't about knowing where I'll finish or dreading having the high school cross country team beat me; its all about just doing the best I can do on that day in that race in that moment. This 5K certainly put me on my way to believing that on race day I'll smile no matter what. I hope you will too!
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