Jason made it home from work last night with about ten minutes to spare. I had some champagne ready to go.
We watched the countdown on TV and when 2012 arrived, we popped the bubbly. Can you see the cork?
Originally, I wasn’t going to drink at all, but in the spirit of celebration, I had a glass.
So, the reason that I wasn’t going to drink last night – I signed up for a somewhat impromptu New Year’s Day 10K. I have been sort of thinking about the idea of starting the New Year in a healthy way instead of with a hangover. It’s kind of hard to focus on health goals when you feel like crap, right? I hoped that doing a January 1st race might set the tone for the entire year.
When I looked up New Years Day races a couple of weeks ago, I found three in the Atlanta metro area – one in Norcross, which is by my house, one in Kennesaw (45 minutes away) and one in Stockbridge (also 45 minutes away but in a different direction). Originally, I was going to do the Norcross one just because it was the closest, but then Lindsay said she was thinking of running the one in Stockbridge, so I decided to do that one with her instead and signed up on Friday night.
The race, The Resolution Run, had both a 5K and a 10K. Even though I haven’t really run more than four miles at a time during entire month of December and probably most of November, I signed up for the 10K figuring I’d just take it easy, not race for time and walk if I needed to.
The nice part about this race was that it didn’t start until 1pm. Since I had plenty of time, I decided to make pancakes. This was just from a mix that we had and I added a chopped pear. Decent pre-race fuel, I thought. Jason and I split what you see here.
After breakfast, I got into my running clothes, put the address into the GPS and was on my way. I’m not very familiar with the south side of Atlanta so I didn’t really know what to expect. The race started in the parking lot of a Publix shopping center which was nice because there was plenty of parking.
After some weird group aerobics, the race began. There wasn’t much of a formal start. Lindsay and I were making our way to the start line and we heard someone say GO! and that was it. The first half mile was along the side of a main road. They were doing construction on the road to widen it, so the runners had a nice lane to run in that didn’t have any traffic. After about a half mile, we turned into a neighborhood.
The race was typical Atlanta hilly. It wasn’t OMG this is awful and I want to die hilly (which is an official category of hilliness), but it wasn’t flat either. I walked up some of the bigger hills. Hill running is something that I really struggle with. Probably because I never really do it.
The 5K was a loop that started and ending at the same point. The 10K wasn’t a different route, it was just a repeat of the 5K. It was kind of a tease to see the finish line and know that you had to run the entire thing again! Most people were doing the 5K and the crowd really thinned out when the 10Kers started the second loop. I kind of started to worry that I was going be last because the slower runners would have all done the 5K. (Spoiler alert – I was not last.)
The good thing about running the 3.1 mile loop twice was that I knew exactly what I was in for. Lots of uphills and lots of downhills and lots of big houses to look at for scenery.
I might have walked a little bit more during the second loop of the course. I didn’t really care about my time that much (otherwise, I wouldn’t have taken pictures.) and just wanted to enjoy myself. I wasn’t wearing a Garmin and had absolutely no clue what my pace was, but I ended up crossing the finish line just shy of 1:05. Considering the walking and the lack of training, I’m okay with that time.
Doing this race was a very good idea. I could have spent New Year’s Day lying on the couch with a hangover, but I’m glad that I didn’t.
