Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

A week ago, I made my “triumphant” return to racing post-baby. I say triumphant because, even though I didn’t win, or even place in my age group (heck, I didn’t do that pre-baby, so why start now?), I did make it through the whole race without any walking, and in much better time than I thought I would. I did the Santa Scurry 5k in Keller. It was a fun, family-friendly night-time race. The course started and ended in front of Keller’s Town Hall, and ran through Bear Creek Park. Since it was a night race, the course was lit with tiki torches, and there were race helpers at key turns along the way, helping to direct folks. I was a little worried about the dark parts of the course, but it turned out to be really easy to follow. I would not, however, have wanted to be pushing a jogging stroller along the course, mainly because parts of it were rather narrow. There were quite a few I saw (in particular one who came whizzing past me – I was duly impressed), though, and heard of no problems. I will say that my Garmin showed the course as being almost two-tenths of a mile short, which kind of bummed me about my time, but Bryan has convinced me to let it go.

So, race stats:

Garmin time: 30:12

Official time: 30:15 (not really sure why the 3 second difference, but in the grand scheme of things, that’s not a big deal, right?)

Place: 13th in age group (out of 45); 109th overall (looks like there were 308 total racers)

Did I mention I had the best-looking cheering crew in the whole race? Bryan and the boys found 3 places to watch for me – just past the start, about half-way through the course, and then at the end. Their cheering was a big help – thanks, guys!

All in all, it was a good return to racing. I hope to do even more in the future. I’m signed up for the Cowtown 10K, and was supposed to start a half-marathon training plan last Monday (the 6th), but a nasty tummy bug that Sam brought home derailed that…here’s to Monday, right?