For Women Only 5K

I figured that today would be just as good as any day to get my feet wet into racing. So, last night, I diligently laid out all of my race gear, printed out maps to the race site and began to mentally prepare for the first of many races this year.

I headed for bed early only to be distracted by a marathon of Heroes! Woo hoo, time to catch up on missed episodes! Needless to say, I awoke the following morning a bit groggy.

My plan was to get to the race site at least one hour before start time at 8:30am. This was imperative given that I had yet to register. I was out the door at 7:15 and I was shocked -- I find that I am almost always racing out the door at least twenty minutes later than planned. When I arrived at the race location, it was so wonderful to see so many women and girls. I mean, I realize that the race is actually called For Women Only but I was really touched and inspired by all the mothers who were racing with the young girls in an effort to promote fitness and female power in the lives of their daughters. I thought, what a great, local Ann Arbor race to participate in.

With fifteen minutes to the start, I decided to jog around a bit and stretch out. I was feeling a little bit tight from my 5-miler yesterday and wanted to make sure that my first mile was as comfortable as possible. I lined up in between the 8 and 10 minute mile pace and befriended a friendly Ann Arbor local whose only goal for the race was to keep up with her 10-year-old daughter. Yay! Already, I can't wait to do fun things like this with Anna when she's a little bit older.

Wow. At 8:30am in the sun is pretty warm. Note this for the 10K in two weeks. I stuck in my ear plugs and waited for the start siren. I repeated to myself, just enjoy yourself and relax. Stay under 30:00 and let's call it a day. Then to my right I see camera-clad LCT and I waved with a silly grin like a little girl (see above pic), thrilled to have my own personal cheerleader. At the siren, I went out and fought tooth and nail to hold myself back but I zig zagged around the other runners t like the rookie I am to claim some space.

In the end, I didn't race the 5K like one ought to: all out. Instead, I stayed on *my* goal, which was simply to enjoy some female camaraderie and pin a number to my shirt for the first time in eons. I sprinted to the finish line after running comfortably throughout most of the course. Truth be told, I felt a little silly having not gone out harder when I saw my 26:42 time on the clock.

Woo Hoo!