Wednesday, August 1, 2012

My, I did not get a PR 5K but great race anyway, report

We finished!!
A week ago I joined my friend Juliet to run the "Downtown Westfield 5K run and Pizza Extravaganza."

Juliet and I have been great friends foreva and when she asked if I would run this one with her, I told her absolutely without any hesitation.

I almost hit a small snag though. I assumed it was a morning race because that's all I've ever run… Now why the pizza part wouldn't make me think otherwise is beyond me… I did figure it out the night before so all was well.

I LOVED this race. Westfield, NJ is an upscale (but not stuffy) New Jersey suburb and boasts beautiful neighborhoods with homes that are pridefully kept up. It was a beautiful town to run through and the race was well-organized.

Juliet's family was cheering us on after the first mile and was excited to see us at the finish. Juliet and I ran, stopped to talk to neighbors, high-fived and hugged the kids and chatted the whole time.

This was not a race that I was thinking about time on. Juliet is more of a casual runner so we decided that this would be run for fun. And it was fun.

As we chatted and not 'killed ourselves' to finish in record time, I remembered how fun just stopping to appreciate the course, the spectators and another runner's company could be. I wasn't huffing and puffing and trying not to die as I usually feel during a 5K and that was nice.

The only bummer was that it was a pizza run and thanks to the gluten and dairy issues I've got, there was no celebratory slice for me at the finish. But eh, I survived.

Time? Oh 40 minutes or so. And I love every minute of it!

I hope to run it again next year. Who knows, maybe we'll even run it in 39 minutes! Then again, maybe  we won't and that would be just fine with me.

Do you ever run a race just for fun or are you always "balls to the walls" racing it?
Have you ever run an evening race? I kind of liked running at night.


XO
Jen


6 comments:

Jogging on Coffee said...

I always run "races" just for fun! Maybe one day I'll start caring about my time but I haven't so far.

misszippy said...

Sounds like a perfect way to spend an evening to me! I just did my first night race a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I have also run a couple of races for fun this year, as opposed to for time, and yes, it's a great way to go!

Unknown said...

Great job! Attitude is everything. :) So glad you enjoyed yourself!

Jill said...

I lived in Westfield last year, but bailed on the pizza run because of the crazy heat! Glad you had fun

Lorenda said...

My days of "balls to the walls" racing are long past! I just don't feel like putting myself through that anymore. It was fun; I was regularly placing in my age group or winning masters and have a few backpacks, mugs, water bottles, medals, etc to show for it. I still run and I still run races, I even still do speedwork but now running and races is to celebrate my health and stay in shape.
We have quite a few evening races, even some weeknight evening races around here in southeast Michigan. We even have a series of 3 triathlons on Wednesday evenings during the summer. Every now and then there is even something late at night which is always fun and turns into a big party!

Frickin' Fabulous at 40 said...

There are some races you just can't run "balls to the wall" even if you tried, like when I did the 5k in Yankee Stadium. The course wasn't conducive to sprinting! I'm thinking that the Dash to the Finish Line may be a fun run as well!