The 5K, a race of epic proportions

First off, Blogger can bite me. I tried to post this earlier and nothing doing. It couldn't connect and blah de dah. Shut up Blogger and let me post!

Ahem, so, yeah, the 5K. It took place at 9 am, which is, oh, about 3 hours earlier than I usually wake up on Saturdays. Alex and I showed up around 8:30 and met with our friends who were also running. All of these friends were girls. Alex was not pleased to be the only guy running, but whatcha gonna do? He vowed to beat us all in a blaze of manly, testosterone filled glory. Well, as manly as one can be with jingle bells tied to your shoes.

Since it was 9 a.m. in December, it was really cold outside. And I do mean REALLY cold. I was wearing two pairs of pants to go with my gloves, headband, and stylish gray and black fleece. It wasn't enough, though, so I was actually ready to start running before 9 in order to warm up. As a result, when the race began, I took off pretty quickly and shocked myself by how fast I was running. And then I discovered that the very first part of the race was on a hill. Boo! I hate hills. I can't run them because I am fat and out of shape and from Louisiana. I managed to keep up with one of my friends and she and I went back and forth passing each other on the first mile.

And then we hit the second mile.

Which we walked. Somewhat leisurely. We probably shouldn't have, but she's dating Alex's brother and so we always have a lot to talk about. Solidarity and all that, you know? (Seriously, you get the two of us together and we're like, "Blah, blah, blah, Bauers, blah, blah, diarrhea of the mouth, blah, blah, blah.") So while we talked and walked, Alex caught up to us and then passed us. Which was, of course, unacceptable, so we both started running and I passed him again. Ha!

She and I didn't finish at the same time because she kept running the rest of the way, while I walked with Alex and talked about how out of shape we are. But once we hit the home stretch, I decided to run again and left Alex behind, making it my personal goal to beat this old lady who was running ahead of me. Which I did. Take that 60-year-old lady!

Once we had all crossed the finish line, we went inside and ate bananas and Panera bagels and tried to woo the announcer lady into giving us door prizes. Yay!

So by the time it was all said and done, I only beat Alex by a little over a minute. Maybe two? But I know I could have done better had I not decided to have a couple of heart to hearts along the way. Plus, I finished AND I didn't die or puke. What more could a girl ask for? And I actually really enjoyed myself. There's something about running with other people in a big pack, that I found really enjoyable. So I'm planning on doing it again. When? I'm not sure. But it'll happen again. I want to pin a number to my stomach and run like a fool. Yippee!