First race of the season.  Like most races, had to go it alone.  I’ve been in Atlanta over six years now, yet I still totally suck at making friends.  I have made a few, but they keep moving away, or having babies, or just hate running.  So off I go to races alone.  Maybe it should bother me, but it doesn’t.  I’m really a lone goat when it comes to running.

So this was just a 5k on paved roads.  Nothing fancy or exciting.  Or so I thought.  However, I showed up and there was all sorts of free stuff set up!  Free stuff!  Yay!  Goats LOVE free stuff.  (Remind me to tell you the story of how I ran to the Peachtree Road Race Expo, got a free Publix reusable bag, filled it completely full of free samples of Larabars, Cascadian Farms snacks, and anything else I could get my paws on. I then proceeded to run the two miles back to our house down a major thoroughfare with the full bag of treats in my hands.  Apparently many people saw me and asked my husband, why did we see Liz running through town clutching a big bag to her chest?)

So I digress…anyways at the race the first booth I walk up to has vegan gluten free muffins. I kid you not.  Vegan?! And Gluten free?!  Holy cow, it’s like they knew I was coming.

Mmmmmm….

Next table, bananas and tons of cut oranges – including blood oranges! Yum!!!

I don’t like to eat goodies before the race, so I held back until afterwards.

THE RACE – ok so I’ve only been running short distances this spring/summer.  The last race I did was the Georgia Marathon in March.  After that work was so awful I hadn’t really trained. I then did IronGirl with practically no training.  I sucked it up in the water and on the bike, but still managed to burn out a fast 5k (I think I was just so happy to finally be on my own two feet!)… so I thought, this fast running is kind of fun.  Let me stick with short distances.

So I ran a fast 5k in Cheat Lake WV near my hometown in PA.  Pooky and I took the 1^st place man and woman.  Uncle Joe and cousin Beth Ann took their age groups!  What a family of winners.  Made me think, hmmm maybe this fast stuff is for me!  Week before this I ran the 10k leg of a triathlon relay at Tugaloo.  My teammates, although awesome, were a little gun-ho, and made me nervous.  I am in short supply of friends due to social awkwardness, so I didn’t want to lose two of them due to a tortoise like 10k. I figured I’d be slow and sucky, but I actually went a lot faster than expected.  So I kept the two friends (sigh of relief here).

And Three’s Company wins it! And the Goat keeps two friends (sigh of relief here)
Tugaloo Tri Relay (Sept 2012)

So this race.  What race am I talking about??? Dekalb 5k, right… So I decided to go out as fast as I could at the start and see what I could do.  The course promised to be flat and fast.  Um, not so much!  They changed it up and there were some hills.  But I love hills, so I won’t complaint.  However, my legs felt like lead and I was tired from the week’s workouts including some new strength work and yoga, both of which I hate.

I gave it my all, almost…and came in 3^rd overall woman and 1^st in my age group.  The girls who beat me were super fit and had on the smallest shorts ever (ok, I know I where small shorts, but really, theirs were super small!) and totally rocked them.  So I can’t complain.  They deserved it.  If for no other reason than the shorts.

My Award!

Post Race – this is where the fun starts.  No one was eating the gluten free and vegan muffins or the blood oranges!! So sad! I couldn’t imagine why.  Then, I spotted it.  The Chic-a-filet trailer giving away free sandwiches.  How could the delicious nutritious gluten free vegan treats compete?  Alas, they could not.  Well, more for me.  And I went and found a plastic bag (which had a free towel inside –yay, more free stuff) and loaded it full of blood oranges and muffins.  I was over joyed!

To the awards – hmmm this is where things mixed up a bit.  I wandered over to the awards…and noticed that they were making the winners take pictures with the Chic-a-Filet cow!  Oh no!  What’s a super liberal to do?  I’m all for their right to exist and for others to partake, but also all for my right to not like them.  Of course I refused to take a picture with the cow (I know, I know…but I just find it bad for the body and the soul!) …and it caused a little stir.  However, the police were super sweet and allowed me to take a picture with them only.

Most interesting part of the day?  Masala ramen noodles in race bag…love a little Indian flare sneaking in there!  Thanks Patel Brothers 😉

It’s like they were giving a shout out to my Indian-ness by putting Masala noodles in the race bag!

All and all a good race for a good cause supporting the DeKalb PD.