Country Music 5k

My alarm went off at 6am on Saturday.  This is normally sleeping in for me, but after having a late night Friday, all I wanted to do was hit snooze.  In the end, I decided that since I had to run anyways, and had already paid the entry fee, I might as well get the medal, cowboy hat, and beer for finishing the race.

This was a small race with free neighborhood parking and had a free concert at the end (which I was not able to attend).  Check-in was super easy and quick and I had plenty of time to take my new cowboy hat back to my car.  I wanted to wear it during the race, but my head must be shaped funny, because it was too big in the front but snug on the sides. I figured it would be smarter to ditch the cowboy hat and run in what I came with.

I got to the starting line and found one of my Ragnar teammates, Jack, and his lovely wife!  Yay for unexpected friendly faces!  And with Ragnar coming up quickly it was nice to chat a bit and that.  I'm runner 3 and he's runner 4, so good to know he's the one I'll literally be passing the baton to (or slap bracelet) after each leg.  But more on that later!

The race was a nice flat, loop course through downtown Anaheim.  Some of it was residential, and some of it was your typical downtown scenery.  Definitely a nice quiet part of town to run through.  My plan was to just run a comfortable pace the whole race and I'm happy to say my pace was pretty close to last week's 5k.  I'm always happy with consistency, especially since I didn't have friends with me to help motivate me to a better pace.  :)

One of the things I try to do at every race is to find someone who seems to be running at a similar pace and stick with them.  This works better at longer races, but for shorter races I'll pick out someone, keep focused on them, and try to match them stride for stride.  I was in a pack of about 3 women for a good half mile and then we get to the water station.  I always walk through the water station and take a good few seconds to enjoy my water, catch my breath, and take off again.  As I'm about to start running again, one of the women I had been sticking with catches up to me and says, "You're kicking butt!  I've been trying to catch up to you!"  She couldn't have been more than a few feet behind me, but it was so awesome to know that while I had a focal point in front of me to keep up with, this woman was using me as her focal point.  Totally all the motivation I needed to push forward and keep up my stride for the remainder of the race.

As I crossed the finish line I was excited to see my buddy Jack cheering me on (and even took the picture to the left!  Thanks Jack!).  I felt so good I forgot to turn my watch off!  Oops.  Was halfway to the beer garden before I remembered.  I got my beer, made a new friend while we finished our drink, and then headed home.  As always, I was so happy to have dragged myself out of bed that morning.  It's not always easy but it's always worth it!

Also, there were a ton of cute race costumes!  Some people even braved jeans and I have to commend anyone who chooses to run 3 miles in jeans.  That sounds like more chafing than I am willing to endure.  But kudos to them for choosing cuteness over comfort!  Anyone do any fun races this weekend?