Towpath Trilogy: 5 Miler Recap

Sunday was my first race of the season and I was so giddily nervous, I was randomly clapping and squealing sitting in my car while I waited for the start.

Mom didn't seem to have this issue

The weather was almost perfect, upper 50s and partly cloudy, if only we could have gotten rid of the wind...though I hardly noticed it during the race.

My lofty goal for the race was to come in 1st woman overall. My regular goal was to come in somewhere in the Top 3 Overall, or at least 1st in my division. And of course, when I put those kinds of goals in my head, the pressure is on!

I positioned myself right at the front of the pack and did my normal bunny hops to work off my nervous energy (and stay warm). While chatting up my fellow racers (read: giving the Disney Marathon free advertising), I spotted HER.

HER: A fake 'n baked, jet black hair, string-beaned, mutant with the cockiness of an Olympian. She was hanging out at the start line with HIM, an equally cocky, pro-runner-attired mutant.

So much for 1st place.

Runners, on your marks...
"No Line on the Horizon" set on iPod.

Get Set...
Hand over Garmin's 'start' button.

Go!!!!!!!!!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Outta my way, bitches!!!!!

The only psychotically grinning runner

Mile 1: Man, there's a whole slew of women passing me. I hope they're just fast starters!

The first part of the race is uphill (a theme of this race) and then we turned onto the Towpath. Even without the leaves on the trees, it is such a pretty race. I love my Towpath!

I used a huge downhill to my advantage (man, is that going to suck coming back up), and passed the remainder of the women who had gotten ahead of me at the start, minus HER.

Mile 1.65: OMG, that's it?! Holy crap. This is turning into the longest 5 miles I have ever run!


Mile 2: Side stitch! Dammit! Really? This little bugger never did left my side the rest of race, har har.


Mile 3: Finally heading back. Wahoo!


Mile 4: Almost there, almost there. Crap! There's that blasted hill! Who maps these courses out, Satan?

Mile 4.75: Oh look, there's HER and HIM. Jogging back. Because they're finished. And wanted to gloat. Where's a gun?

Mile 4.9: There's mommy! Yay! I'm comin', I'm comin'!

Mile 4.97: WHHHHHRR! The middle-aged guy I'd been passing back and forth the whole race goes whipping by. Dammit! Not enough time to catch up.



Yeah...He totally sand-bagged me by letting me pass him that last time

Mile 5: DONE!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!!!!!

Finished in 35:35:4, 7:07 pace,  2nd woman overall, 15th place total out of about 365. I'm so happy! And for the first time in my entire running career, I got PAID! I got a very pretty matted picture of the Towpath, and $25 to Vertical Runner, a local running shoe store. Awesome!



Not too shabby for the 1st race of the season, and only 2nd run outside in months!

Oh, and about HER and HIM? HER and HIM both came in as top Female and Male. HER beat me by almost 6 minutes. This got me very suspicious. How is it possible that there are 6 minutes between 1st and 2nd place? So, I googled them and found out she's a track/cross country coach at a University, and he is her student! How is that right? Maybe next time I'll go race some kindergardners on the playground! I hope they feel real proud of themselves, trouncing us normal folk. Lol. (Ok, I'm totally joking around, but come on! So not right!)

And tonight.........I'm signing up for the 2014 Walt Disney World Half Marathon. YESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!