Like I'm 17 again....

Last night my good friend and neighbor growing-up, George was in town from Chicago. With him, he brought his boyfriend, Gil, who is originally from Mexico City, Mexico. Wanting to show Gil a little snapshot of Columbus, we walked down High Street in the short north to the Park Street Festival. Turns out, the Park Street Festival is pretty much just a drunken college party where all of the cheesy bars move their operations outside onto the street. During my disappointment I texted my friend Abbey to see what she was planning to do this weekend. A few text messages later and I was signed-up to run a 5K with her in the morning.

As I was walking home, thinking about the race I was wondering if i'd be able to really push myself and run a good 5K time like I used to in high school and ran Cross Country. I talked myself out of that goal pretty quickly and said that if I ran under 27 minutes I'd be happy (rationale - my 1/2 marathon split was 9:25, 27:00 would mean that I was running 30 seconds faster / mile than my half marathon pace). 

Abbey picked me up in the morning and I went, unregistered, down to the race. Small, low-key race with maybe 200 people running. Abbey's co-worker Jen, who ran the Boston Marathon this past year was there and seriously warming up. A few minutes later we got started and I ran with Abbey for the first mile and half. Then I stopped to tie my shoe and couldn't catch back up with her again. I knew I was running faster than usual when I was with her, so I just hoped I didn't totally slack during the last half of the race.

25 minutes and 17 seconds after starting, I crossed the finish line! I'm pretty sure that my average season time during my junior year was somewhere in the low 25s....I was really pleased to run a time that is close to what I ran in high school!

It only makes me wonder what kind of runner I would have been at age 16 /17 if I would have been as focused on my health and working out as I am now. When I was in high school, and had a better metabolism I ate whatever I wanted (even though mom kept our meals very balanced) and I never did any strength or speed training. ... I guess there's no telling what kind of runner I could have been.

But as for now, I know that I finished in the Top 20 women at the PRIDE race in Goodale park this saturday. Here is a picture of me and Abbey showing off our sweet rainbow metals! If you can ignore the overactive sweat glands, there is a nice little beam of sunlight that makes this photo look like a bit of a glamour shot!