"I Did" Beats "I Will" Any Day

Just after starting. Please note what the back of my shirt says:
 "Dunder Mifflin Scranton Meredith Palmer Memorial Celebrity Rabies Awareness Pro-Am Fun Run Race for the Cure."

Oddly enough, I stole the title of this blog from a cigarette ad. The ad is just that tag line in a large, bold font, and I'm not sure what it has to do with smoking, unless it is a government-mandated attempt to get people to stop.

At any rate, it is appropriate for this blog because Saturday morning, I did it. I laid out my goals on this blog Friday night and then Saturday morning I accomplished them.  I ran an entire 5k, and I finished in under 35 minutes.  I'm not exactly sure what my time was and they haven't published the results yet. It was either approximately 32 or 33 minutes and 36 seconds. So I shaved either 2 or 3 minutes off my time.

I started at the back of the pack of 300+ runners. I didn't want to have a bunch of people passing me, but instead, I was quickly passing others.  Let me tell you, that's an ego boost and something I will probably do again at my next race.

I enjoyed running down South Blvd at 8 a.m. in the middle of a gaggle of runners. The weather was amazing, and it just felt great when I finally got some space in the pack to stretch my legs.  We didn't spend long on South and turned off to the neighborhoods behind it. The first mile was great, and made me think I could maybe really like this running stuff.

As it was the "Rock 'n Read 5k," we were promised a band playing at every mile (the reading part came in because we were supporting the library system). What we got instead was a few car stereos blaring for us and one guy with a guitar and an amp on someone's front lawn.  It didn't matter, cause I had my ipod and was rocking out to my running playlist.

I hadn't done any advance scouting of the course, and there were a few more hills than I would've preferred. Especially in the second and third mile.  The course was jagged, too, meaning we would only stay on a street for a block or two and then we would turn off onto another street.  This wouldn't be a big deal, except, then you couldn't see very far in front of you to see how bad the upcoming hills would be. On second thought, that might've been a good thing.

For the first half of the race I was keeping pace with a girl about my age. I thought we should be friends, so about halfway through, I turned to her and said, "We've been next to each other the whole race!" She didn't hear me with her ear buds in, and I had to repeat it when she pulled them out for me. I was going to say, "We should be friends!" next, but she put her earbuds back in before I could, so I guess that means she has enough friends.   After that she dropped back and I pulled ahead and I never saw her again. I hope I didn't scare her.

Towards the end, it didn't matter that I hadn't made a friend, because I just started talking to the air around me. These are some things I said:
"Where is mile 2?!?" (Turns out it was right around the next corner)
"I hate hills"
"These hills are killing me"
"C'mon, Stuckey, you can do it" (This was as I was going uphill. Also, it should be noted that I don't normally refer to myself as Stuckey, but this time I did.)

My friend Matt came out to run the 5k and support his library, but he is very fast and finished in about 25 minutes.  My dad got a great pic of him crossing the finish line.  Apparently my dad and Matt got to be great friends waiting for me to finally roll in seven minutes later.  

After I finished and I caught my breath, there was a bunch of SWAG for Matt, my dad and I to enjoy.  We had oranges (the best post-race snack available, if you ask me) and Chick-fil-A biscuits (I regret that I ate one, it was lukewarm and too heavy for just finishing a run) and water.  They also had cupcakes (I took one because it looked so pretty, but couldn't bring myself to eat it until like an hour later), beer (I skipped this, the thought of beer after running made me want to puke) and mimosas (I did take one of these, because there aren't many occasions where mimosas are the appropriate alcoholic beverage, but I thought this was one. I was wrong. I forgot how much I hate champagne, which together with orange juice makes a mimosa.)

Anyway, that's probably more post-race commentary than you wanted to know. Here are some post-race pictures.

Matt and I before the race.

The starting line 

Matt crosses the finish 

I cross the finish line
(behind a lady with a stroller, I guess)

Post-race oranges make me happy