Earthmovers and Sandcastles

ACS Race Report

Well, it was freezing out. I mean, it might, just barely, have reached into the 40’s, but it was extremely windy and gray, so that it felt much colder than it probably was. The other woman from the family club who was supposed to do the run with me (she was going to walk, though) decided not to brave it, since she would have had to bring her one-year-old with her.

I don’t know how many other people were kept away by the weather, but it wasn’t a large group of people at all. Very informally run, as well; the digital timing clock wasn’t even available, since it was apparently broken. We were told, “If you want to know your finishing time, make sure to check your watches!” Nice. But I had planned to do that, anyway, so it wasn’t a hardship.

Took off way too fast out of the starting lineup. Something about the small crowd, composed mostly of walkers, managed to convince me that I was going to be able to maintain a seven-minute-mile pace. I kept going, though, and even though the wind was blowing like crazy (the birds around the lake at the center of the path were hysterically funny to watch, being swept all over the sky) and I was really hurting by the last mile, I held my time under nine minutes per mile for most of the run. My final time was 27:15 - a new personal best! I have no idea where I placed; they only kept records of the first and second finishers for each age group. But I beat my goal!