Between the holidays and being crazy-busy at work, it's taken me a MONTH to get around to posting a race report for the
Trail of Lights 5K that I did on December 8. At this point I almost feel like I should just skip it, but since it was my first race ever, I want to have it recorded. I've pretty much had the post composed in my head since the next day anyway, so posting it is just a formality.
I had a
pretty crappy day leading up to the race, but by late afternoon my headache was starting to go away (thank you, Advil and Claritin), and I was fairly excited by the time
velokitty (who was also running), her sister Diana,
dongrew,
gudenna, and Ben showed up. It was unseasonably warm - mid-70s, I think - which I knew would be a little warm for the run, but not having to worry about what to wear or about freezing to death waiting to start took a lot of my stress away. We all parked at Edward's house to avoid the traffic nightmare at Zilker Park, and walked down the hill.
Our walk was a little over 3/4 of a mile - a bit longer than my usual warm-up walk, but also 40 minutes before the run started. We wandered around a bit, used the port-a-potties (joy), decided on a post-race meeting spot, and debated why some people's race numbers were different from ours (turned out there were so many day-of registrations they'd run out of the original kind). Finally the crowd started to press in toward the start line (the race wasn't timed so we were all bunched in together), at which point I realized I probably should've used all that time to do some sort of warm-up. :( Too late, though, so I figured I'd just go slowly at the beginning (as if I have any other speed), and walk if necessary.
The gun went off and we shuffled forward. Everyone around us was pretty laid back - no one pushing or being obnoxious to try to get to the front. (I'm assuming all the people who were actually trying to go fast had positioned themselves much closer to the starting line.) After a few minutes we got to the arch and I was able to start a slow jog. I was surprised at the number of walkers who were mixed in with the crowd at that point - I thought it was common etiquette for walkers to start at the back (although as Edward pointed out later, in that pre-race jumble, how could anyone tell where the runners ended and the walkers began, even if they'd wanted to start in the back?). At any rate, the first half-mile or so was all about dodging walkers, strollers, and a few dogs. I couldn't be too irritated about that, though - I was too busy being delighted about how wrong I'd been about the terrain of Zilker Park. What I thought was going to be a painful uphill start was mostly flat with some small downhills. Hooray!
I felt awesome for the first mile (which is weird because I usually feel like hell for the first mile - I must've been more warmed up than I thought, or maybe it was just the excitement of the race). Around 9 minutes in (from the time I was at the start line), the frontrunners started passing me heading back toward the finish (except for the 1-mile Trail of Lights itself, the course was an out-and-back). Crazy how fast they were! I passed our cheering section around the 1-mile mark, and I was happy that I saw them while I felt good and had a genuine smile on my face. I was having a great time!
Mile 2 was the Trail of Lights, which I have to say is one of the coolest places I've ever run. I know that's not saying much since I mostly just run around my neighborhood or Town Lake, but still ... neat-o. I especially liked the three sections that were tunnels of lights.
Toward the end of mile 2 I started to feel tired, and of course that's where the hill I'd already gotten to run down was facing me ... but this time going up. The water stop was right before it so I slowed to a walk for a few steps, then made myself start running again. I felt pretty tired for that whole last mile, especially after 2.5 miles (I wonder how much of that was psychological since I knew I was then running farther than I ever had before). Just before the 3-mile mark a girl was standing on the side cheering us on, and it occurred to me how few of the spectators were actually cheering. (But as
gudenna pointed out, in a race that short with so many participants, there is *always* someone running past you, and cheering gets tiring!) Just after the mile marker there was a short but steep uphill, then the beautiful finish line!
The official clock said 37-something, and my Garmin gave me a time of :35:47 ... a decent bit faster than my usual 12+-minute miles. (I attribute my increased speed almost entirely to not having 50 pounds of muscle trying to drag me in random directions. I thought it might be sad or even boring to run without Riley, but I have to say it was a nice change.)
I found the food and water table, which was poorly set up - there was one tiny table of water, which was mobbed, and the rest were food. I didn't feel especially hungry, but there were bananas and cookies, and who am I to turn down a banana and a cookie? And it was the best banana and cookie EVER, which tells me I should probably be better about eating after my runs.
After I ate I headed to our meeting spot and quickly found
velokitty. We stretched a bit and headed to
Shady Grove, where
gudenna et al. had kindly agreed to go ahead and put us on the waiting list for a table. It worked out perfectly (for us, at least) - they'd waited about 40 minutes and had been seated a few minutes before we arrived.
Even though the weather was a little warm for a run, being able to sit outside and drink margaritas afterwards made it well worth it. Altogether, it was the best first race experience I could have asked for.