Well, I ran my first road race in 18+ years, and I achieved my goal for it: I ran under an 8:30 mile, wahoo! And managed to arrive in 55th place for women. The race was fun, and offered a few revelations:
1. Julie and I started way back in the pack, so our first half-mile was spent weaving through said pack of mostly slower runners, in order to find the pace(s) we wanted. That part was kind of fun, but the effort it required probably had something to do with the nasty sideache I had for the entire third mile.
2. I tried to run through the sideache- something I never do. As a result, the next day I still had some bruising. Yow!
3. My decision to run through it paid off, at least in terms of being able to cross the finish line upright – the sideache went away once I caught sight of the finish chute.
4. 5k is definitely a race… just a helluva short one. I almost felt like I didn’t deserve all the free food the sponsors had for us and the 10k runners, at the end: popsicles, bananas, weird (but tasty) yeasty-scone things, salted nut rolls, mini Clif bars, cheese, kefir, orange green tea soda.

Well, regardless of whether or not I burned any more calories than I do on my average training run, Steve and I celebrated the success (and beautiful day) by heading over to the Happy Gnome for a pint of Furious and some raspberry french toast.