Guaranteed

I knew going in to race day that it was going to be the end of a very, very long and exhausting weekend (the rest of the weekend is a post for another day). And it was, but I was still excited for my very first 5K.

Since I was pre-registered, we decided that arriving around 8AM would be just about right (race start for chip-timed was 8:35AM). I wanted to be on the road by 6:45AM but my mom must have seen my text ("We're loading the van at 6:45") and figured it would take at least 10 minutes before we would leave, as she didn't arrive until 6:55. No prob. I was giving us a pretty decent cushion (I thought).

The drive downtown (pronounced dahntahn) was uneventful and the kids (and Grandma) watched Shrek 3 in relative silence. And then we hit the city. And there was traffic. A LOT of traffic. Now, I used to spend some time in the big city (usually bar hopping) but I haven't lived that life for over 10 years so I had no clue exactly where I needed to be. After sitting through the same traffic light for 4 cycles and watching countless people in race tees walk past my mom convinced me to just get out and go. In the middle of the street, I opened the door (to cheers from the woman in her own race tee driving the car next to us) and made a break for it.

If you know me in real life, none of this story is going to surprise you in the least. If you don't, rest assured I can't make this sh*t up. I headed down to the light which I knew was the general direction I needed to go and decided to just follow the crowd. I spotted the tents (5 or 6 of them for different purposes - registration, t-shirts only, etc.) and headed towards those. On the way I spotted someone else by herself with a blue number (for chip-timed runners) and buddied up. Neither one of us knew where in the heck we were going but we decided we would figure it out. I still needed pins for my bib and we found those and decided surely those volunteers would know where the start was. Wrong.

We searched for other volunteers and/or blue numbered runners. One volunteer "helpfully" informed us that the start for chip-timed runners was to the left at the "Y" and the run/walk was to the right. OKaaay. We headed in the general direction that she pointed and I spotted some (rather unfriendly) dude with a blue number kissing his wife good-bye. We latched on to him (whether he liked it or not) and tried to find the start. The left of the "Y"? Was blocked off. We had to go the whole way back down, past the registration tents, up a ginormous hill, around the port-o-potties and down a smaller hill to the start. We busted throught the barricades and got chased by a cop trying to keep us from crossing there (yeah, right). At this point I got separated from my original buddy (whose name I didn't even catch) and found the very first girls who I had asked for directions in the first place. We came up over the hill just as I heard the MC (a local news reporter and occasional anchor) say, "I'm gonna count you down!! 5! 4! 3!" Whew! I sent a text to my fan club across the state (Hi, Jus!) and I was off.

As for the race itself, you have to remember I have never done this before. Jodie, over at mommyhood, told me that the first few minutes would be people-dodging. THAT was an understatement. I didn't cross the start line until a couple of minutes in and I was STILL walking. I didn't hit the 1 mile mark until close to 12 minutes (at this point I was pretty disgusted). But then things opened up, I hit my stride and my tunes miraculously lined up perfectly. I had no idea if my delusional dream of having my family see me cross the finish would come true or not (remember, I left them in the Space Shuttle in the middle of the road looking for parking) but I was bound and determined to do this thing. To make it work. To make my time goal. And to do so with a smile across my face. Yinz guys, I did it. I finished with a smile in a time of 30:24 on my watch (my official time was around 32:14, meaning that's what the clock said when I crossed the line. I still have no idea exactly how this all works.). I knew I was guaranteed a PR because this was my first race. Guaranteed.

I texted Jus that I had finished and what my watch said. Then I called Mr. MOTH and he said, "What? We're on the hill waiting for you to finish!" Yeah. So they were there but since nearly every woman who crossed the line was wearing a white race shirt and ponytail, they never saw me. My Oldest Boy said, "Did you finish before 1, 000?" So cute! (They thought maybe I would win...or at least come in second!).

My advice: Get there early enough to enjoy the festivities before any race. I missed all of the hoopla and that's my only regret. OK. Time to sign up for my next one! (I promise not to blog about it so much! ;)

Updated: My official clock time was 32:32, my chip time was 30:14 (pace of 9:45 - my goal was less than 10) and I was #89 of 240 in my age group and #1,075 of 2,211 overall - not too bad for a newbie!