There has been minimal running talk here lately, but that does not mean it hasn’t been happening. I have been running twice a week, cycling twice a week, and whatever else helps to fuel my cookie addiction. Sunday I ran another race. This race counts as the May race for my, “one race a month” goal. This race was hands down the best race I have yet to run. Let me tell you why.
Reason Number One: SWAG BAG!
Now before you get your pants into an excited bunch, I did NOT run a marathon. I ran a 5 miler. The capital city marathon had three races: a marathon, a half-marathon, and a 5 miler. Due to the fact that there was a marathon and a half going on, this meant a real swag bag. None of those paper envelopes filled with a running chip and a race number. The shirt was a tech shirt, not cotton. I was in running heaven.
Reason Number Two: Spectators, Water Stations, and Course.
This was my sixth race this year, and this was the first time I really felt like a runner. There were people around every corner cheering us on, watching us, and giving us that extra boost of energy. Water stations were at every two mile mark, and I was able to snag some electrolyte SUGAR crack water each time. I didn’t get tired once. I wanted to keep running. The course was awesome. Through neighborhoods, and main roads..it kept winding so I never felt like I was running a straight away towards my death.
Reason Number Three: My new 5mile PR.
I’ve run 5 miles multiple times, always somewhere in the 10:00 min mile range. I never want to get too run happy and tire myself out. I tried to hold back in the beginning because the first half was almost all uphill. I held a comfortable pace and enjoyed every step. I ran a 9:38 min mile pace, and I finished 5.11miles in under 50 minutes which was my goal (and a new 5mile PR). Yay. I don’t have a picture of the PR, but it looked something like this.
Everything about this race has kept me on a constant runners high. I had such an amazing time, and I didn’t even get food after the race (aside from some PB pretzels I stole from MF.) Normally I am more excited about the food than the run, but this time it was ALL about the run. For all you foodies that don’t get excited reading posts like this, I will leave you with this valuable food information. I polished off an entire box of cookies, two chocolate bars, enough spaghetti to feed all of Italy, PB sandwiches fit for Shrek, more chocolate, more cookies, and lots of gas worthy veggies– anything to get that extra push over the finish line.
Q: What is the best swag bag you have received from a race, or from another event? For running, this was the best one. I have a new lunch bag and a comfortable new running shirt. From a different event, I once got a bag of womanly items like makeup and candy from a women’s expo. In that swag bag was a tongue scraper, to scrape your tongue and get rid of the nasty bacteria. I can’t live without my tongue scraper, toothbrushes will never do the job of the scraper.
Blissfulbritt 