Splish, splash (Change of Pace)

Splish, splash

Race #2 for the week was meant to be done as a lark. A fun, crazy, devil-may-care romp through the park. Whoo hoo, ain't it crazy to be up before the birds, look at me ma, it's 5 am!

New York Road Runners Club decided to celebrate their founding, 50 years ago to the day, by hosting a free 5 mile race for 5,000 runners at 5:30 am. Hey, why not?

As I stumbled out of my warm, dry bed at 4 dark thirty am, I had to keep reminding myself what a hoot this was going to be, but all that made me think of was owls. It was not fun getting up in the middle of the night. It was not fun getting drenched and hoping that the plastic bag in my backpack full of work clothes was keeping things dry. It was not fun standing on the start line with the less than 2,000 people who actually showed up, shivering our arses off.

It was fun, crossing the finish line and having it all be over and being pleased with how well I stuck to just over 6:30 pace all the way through and how today that was good enough to win my age group. That was fun for about five minutes, until I started shivering again and it was time to put my cold, wet tee shirt back on and jog to work.

Once I got changed into my blessedly dry dress and heels in my office bathroom, it was fun again for a bit because I felt like a badass for having already run a race that morning, but now I have to do laundry tonight and I can barely keep my eyes open, so I'm back to wondering again about when the fun starts.

You can just barely see me in my yellow top, just to the right of smack dab of center in this photo.