5K Reindeer Run

Last year, I attended the 5k Reindeer run with some of my coworkers at Lake Harriet. That's where I first met Tim, who was also assigned to the Philippines with us. I'd driven in from Burnsville and cursed the snow, which was making my drive pretty slippery and nasty. Additionally, I cursed waking up early and felt bad for Dan, because he was so sick.

I parked far away last time, because it was crowded, and when I got to the race, I realized I didn't look like the rest of the group. For one, I was missing a Christmas costume, for 2, my outfit made it clear that I wasn't a runner well-prepared for Minnesota's December race. No one else was wearing their winter coat. They all had pretty under-armour for that!   But the starting gates went off, and then I ran and ran and ran. I was quite miserable last year, overheating, changing my coat, and running my slowest 5K time ever.  Did I mention the path was covered with 6 inches of loosely packed snow? Felt like we were running on sand.  I felt too guilty after leaving Dan home sick that I went back to be with him and skipped the post-run breakfast.

But this year, I was prepared. Dan wasn't sick, either, and he joined me. We wore all of our new out-door running stuff in Minnesota. We got there over an hour early, so we went home and then came back. We had no snow on the ground at all and our drive was only 10 minutes. While still parking far from the race, we got there in just the right amount of time to run and crossed the gates at 2:25 into the race, still in the thick of the pack.

I started running really fast from the beginning. I wanted to get under 36 minutes, which I knew was possible from my training. But I couldn't walk much to do it and I definitely couldn't let something like tying my shoes again slow me down. So I wanted to run as fast as I could. It was a hard race. I walked a LOT more than I was expecting. I felt like crying at the second hill and when I was only 1.5 miles in, I felt terrible. It almost felt like mile 24 of the marathon!  I paused to walk even more and watched some people pass me. Dan was gone and I really wanted my ipod again or something to distract me, so I played Amanda Palmer's music.

And then.....The Marine Corp came bolting up behind us. They were running in good speed and it reminded me of a line from a book that sometimes becomes my running mantra (A Welsh unit came marching by in good order.--It's just describing the march to the sea from WWII and everyone is exhausted. They see this unit march by them in good order and they're somehow renewed). So I picked up my speed a bit with the Marine Corp, and kept going until the finish line. I felt miserable, but a little better.

After a veer to the left, the race clock was in view. I saw it say 34:33. I smiled. I ran faster to the finish line and got in at 35:02. Oh, yeah, and I started at 2:25 as mentioned earlier, making my time under 33 minutes. 33 was about as fast as I thought I could ever do it, and last night, I was dreaming of it.

I know this isn't a fast time for a lot of people, but it was fast for me. I'm fat and out of shape. I've always been slow! I plan to pick up my speed a lot this winer. I might even start biking to work.  I can't wait to do it in 25 -28 minute next year!