Race - Dash & Dine 5K - Bouder, CO (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)

Somehow I thought... what better thing to do on my birthday AFTER being on vacation for a week than... race? Prior to the Birthday Of Awesome, W had asked if I wanted to join her in racing the Dash & Dine. Seemed like a good idea? Anyway. We texted briefly before I left for work, and W said she was still planning on racing, assuming it wasn't thundering and lightning. I had some time to kill before meeting up with J for my awesome birthday dinner at The Cheesecake Factory (Ha, eating like crap to continue for JUST.ONE.MORE.MEAL). The sky looked dark but it wasn't actually raining, so around 5:30 I headed over. I got lost (headed to the actual Boulder Reservoir instead of Tom Watson parking lot). Anyway. Met up with W and headed over to register. We had a few minutes to kill and W gave me my birthday present - a heart rate strap to link with my awesome Garmin! Couldn't figure out how to get it to work, and race day is probably not the best time to be messing with it. Jogged over to the start line and the weather was certainly looking suspicious:

At least it wasn't thundering or raining. Yet. At the start line with W:

I knew I couldn't pace with W, so I backed off a bit, and started at the back of the pack, where I remained for the entire race. All that fudge and pizza from the last week had caught up with me and I felt... fat, for lack of a better word. Not to mention lack of sleep from getting back so late last night. So, it was a hard race for me. There was some wind that made the open stretches pretty tough. I was already struggling as the race was coming to an end when I felt some rain. Within seconds it was coming down HARD. A super awesome hail/rain mix that made it tough for me to even see the finish line! I literally crossed the finish line, grabbed W and jogged back to the car. By the time I got there I was completely soaked from head to toe and covered with a muddy layer (on my new white running/tennis skirt!!!) And then I had to get in Bee Rad and it was all a wet, muddy, mess. This is the parking lot:

According to W, this is a "freaky Boulder race" - meaning that the people who run it are pretty fast. Um. Yeah. I came in last in my age group, and only a handful of people finished slower than me. All things considered, it actually could have been worse.