Greenfield 4 miler!

Today I ran in the Greenfield 4 miler road race! My colleague, his girlfriend and I all ran. It was so much fun and I needed this fun after the past week.

The past week sucked. I've been in a chronic bad mood. I don't know why. On Wed night I went to yoga, hoping it would help me snap out of it, but instead I felt even WORSE on Thursday. Which, in retrospect was a funny day- I had my car scheduled for maintenance. I had arranged to use a loaner while my car was being serviced. Unfortunately, when I got into the loaner the "check engine" light was on and so THAT car had to be serviced first. Then, at the end of my craptastic day I was on the way up to get the car and they called to tell me it would be another hour. I used that time to go up to the stream near my parent's house, which is where I feel very close to my mom. It was just what I needed, because after that visit and 2 hours of TV while home alone I felt much better on Friday.

But I didn't work out on Thursday or Friday, and I had eaten poorly. This morning I woke up feeling hung over (which can happen to me after eating a lot of white bread) and like I had a cold. Raviv had a snotty nose yesterday and a raspy voice so I was worried. BUT, I dragged myself out of bed and got on the road. Last night we had dinner with some people who like to run and it inspired me.

I was a bit nervous about this race for three reasons:
1) It was the first time I would be running in any form of a race in 3 years
2) It was 15 degrees out when I left the house. First time in about 15 years I would be running in such cold temps
3) the last place finisher last year ran the race in about 50 minutes. I've been averaging 10:30-11 minutes/mile during my runs.

The race is small (only about 50-60 people) and I figure because it is cold and a strange distance for a race, those that do run are probably "Real" runners.

I arrived and accidentally parked really far away. But it turned out okay because I was able to jog to the registration which gave me a bit more confidence running outside. The people were really nice, and no one seemed too intimidating. I met up with my friends and we were all excited.

As I was waiting in line for the bathroom I learned that the race was hilly, which didn't worry me, but I was glad to know ahead of time! By the way- I have a really bad habit of assuming people are in the bathroom if the door is closed, and often don't check. Today I thought someone was in the stall, but nope. empty. In "waiting" for the stall to be free a 6 person-deep line formed. Oops.

Anyway, the race was really fun. I finished 40th out of 50+ runners, but ran 9:30 min miles, which was great! The race started on a downhill and everyone was chatty, but as we made the first turn, for a climb of about 1.5 miles people stopped talking. I got passed, but I also passed people. Most of the time I was running on my own. But the course was a loop, and there were lots of people directing us around turns so it wasn't lonely.

I finished strong and felt like I could have kept running! (Not that I wanted to go faster, just farther). I am now re-energized about running. I can see how racing is important for this purpose.

Also- my shoes arrived the day after I placed my order! way to go City Sports! but they were a bit too small. City Sports was awesome in helping track down a pair in the new size, and I should be getting the new ones this week. My colleague did get his and they fit, and he wore them in the race today. He got a lot of attention for them, and he said he really liked them.

I have a blog topic in mind- "Running with Fear" but I will save it for another day.