Y’all … I RAN A RACE … a real, in person, live race. It was everything I hoped it would be and so much more! Obviously there haven’t been many in person races to choose from to begin with, but even so I wasn’t missing racing as much as I would’ve expected. I’m going to take this as a good sign of sorts. I would even venture to say that it’s been a season of personal growth and contentment. At least, that’s what we’re gonna go with. Final answer.
This race was not on my calendar or even on my radar at all until the week of the race. My primary focus for the last six weeks has been to work on getting my iron levels up. I’ve been taking an iron supplement and eating way more red meat than usual. As far as training goes, I’ve basically just been doing low volume and low intensity running. While I knew that I wasn’t in peak fitness by any means, I also figured that I was way more rested than I otherwise would’ve been. I thought it would be fun to just go for it and see what happened.
The race was the Bras Across the CAUSEway 5k. As you probably guessed, this is an event that supports breast cancer awareness and the benefits actually support local breast cancer patients, which makes it special. For those of you who aren’t local to the Mobile Area, the Causeway is the term used for the approximately 7 mile stretch of road connecting US 90 and US 98 across Mobile Bay. The race is very appropriately named, as there were *literally* bras strung all along across the Causeway on race day.
The race started at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning. I got there around 7:30, picked up my packed and did a really short warm up (less than a mile and a half). The conditions were absolutely PERFECT, with temperatures in the low 50s, less humidity than normal (62%) and minimal wind (10 mph). I ran with a buff around my neck (primarily because I thought this was a COVID requirement) and in gloves. The temperature didn’t really warrant glove wearing, but this was the coolest morning of the year thus far and apparently it takes me a minute or two to remember how to dress myself for colder weather running.
For the most part, people wore masks at the pre and post-race activities, but not many people raced with any sort of mask or face covering. I’m not expressing strong feelings about this one way or the other, but rather simply stating how it went down. I had my buff around my neck, but I never actually covered my face while I was running. I probably could’ve just done without it, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Several people took off a little too hot out of the gate, but after about half a mile or so, everyone had pretty much settled down. I ran neck and neck with another runner basically the entire race. We flip flopped back and forth between first and second overall several times throughout the race. We’ve run together in several races over the years and it is always SO NICE to have someone to work with.
The race course starts out with a little loop and is otherwise a straight shot out and back. You go up one tiny little bridge to get to the turnaround, but for the most part the course is pancake flat. I managed to make a slight “breakaway” on the uphill portion of the bridge, only to run past the turnaround, enabling Jack to catch back up to me. One lane of traffic was blocked and the road was lined with traffic cones. The cones went all the way down the other side of the bridge, where there was also a police car waiting. I kind of just assumed that the turnaround was at the bottom of the bridge, but nope! It was right in the middle. It was marked, but not as well as I was expecting.
Thankfully, I only went a few feet past the cone, but dang. It made a difference! The silver lining was that I still had someone else to work with for the majority of the second half of the race. My splits were perfectly positive, yet very consistent at 5:41, 5:42 and 5:43. I really was not sure what sort of time or pace I would be running going into this race, so I am very pleased with the consistency. My official time was 18:00. My watch read 3.18 miles, so I didn’t run too much extra, but I would’ve really liked to have those few seconds back to get just under 18 minutes. Oh well!
As cheesy as this may sound, this race was good for my soul. I didn’t realize how much I missed the race atmosphere and the racing community in general. I saw so many friendly, familiar (yet covered) faces. I’ve got my eye on a few more local races before the end of the year. I am so thankful that our area is healthy and well enough to safely put on a few small, in person events at this point. It feels REALLY good to be back!