Yesterday (November 23, 2014) was the inaugural Big Easy Running Festival. I signed up for it months ago, and I only had to pay a few dollars for the entry, so when the weather looked like it was going to scupper the whole shebang, I wasn’t too upset. I had signed up for the mini marathon (which sounds way more impressive than the actual race distance of four miles.)

Up until the time I woke up Sunday morning, I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen. The time had been pushed back to a 10:15 start, so it was nice not to have to rush out the door at the crack of dawn. On the other hand, I was worried about it being warmer than I’d like.

I got down to the race site and there weren’t a ton of people. As I was walking up, the national anthem was being sung, and I recognized the voice as that of my friend Robin. She really does have the most exquisite voice.

I got my race packet and debated putting on the race shirt because it was rather chilly, and I’d only worn a short-sleeved tee. The race shirt was short sleeved too, but hey, layers. In the end (even though yellow is not my color) I decided to wear it.

I huddled under a building overhang while waiting for our race to start, because it was lightly raining. Mostly I was just trying to avoid getting my shoes wet. It cleared up in time to get lined up for the race, and we could see the sun coming out in the distance.

The race started not long after the finishers from the 10K (it was supposed to be a half-marathon, but it was cut short) started coming in. Man, they were fast! Pretty awesome.

And then the race started. It was fine. I had been training at a pretty slow pace (basic advice from a coworker who runs really long distances) to go farther distances, so my splits of just under 12 minutes were just what I was aiming for. I mean, not to sound too defensive, but I’ve run a 31 minute 5k, so I definitely can run faster. I just chose not to this time. NO REALLY.

{Let me ask myself, since I gave up doing half marathons, why am I working on running longer distances instead of working on going faster? I must ponder this.}

{Maybe one day I want to try to actually run an entire half-marathon?}

Anyway, there was a nasty headwind from mile 2-3, and the sun came out blazing. I started to regret the extra layer, but oh well.

I ended up finishing right in 46:22, a pace of 11:36 per mile. I’m totally fine with that. In fact, I’m rather proud that I didn’t go out too fast. I don’t know my mile splits (I think the GPS was just bad downtown because Runkeeper had my first mile at 8:50 or something absurd) but I suspect they were negative. (In a good way.)

I’m also possibly unreasonably proud for finishing 16th in my age group. And not 16th out of 18, but 16th out of 40. And the 73rd female out of 175! That’s the top half! At least next year, I’ll be the youngest in my age group instead of the oldest. Heh.

Anyway, I was kind of bummed that we didn’t get 610 Stompers cheering us on at the finish like the 10k finishers did, and we got plastic cups instead of medals, but oh well.

Ran into my friends Robin (the angelic-voiced one) and her husband Bryan at the finish and forced them to take a triplet parent selfie with me.

Not sure what’s next. Am I going to cave and do another half? Or some 5ks? Another sprint triathlon? No idea.