Race day arrived bright and early this morning. My friend Chris and I had decided to meet up at my house around 6AM – quite early for a Saturday morning. But I had gotten all of my stuff gathered the night before, so I was in good shape this morning when my alarm went off at 5:35. I was dressed and had my “breakfast” quickly so I could start digesting before the race. I ate half a banana and a quarter of a bagel and saved the rest for after the race.

Here I am gathering my running gear about half an hour before the race:

I ran with a water bottle and my iPod today. I started the morning off with running tights under my running skirt, but thankfully I was warm enough before the race to take off the extra layer on my legs. I left my long sleeved Nike shirt on for the first 1/2 a mile of the race – then we ran past our car, and I took off the long sleeved shirt and the next mile in my Nike tank top and arm warmers. About a mile and a half into the race I took off my arm warmers and ran the rest of the race the way I had originally planned on running the entire race (who knew it would be cool this morning – it has been so summer like the last several days).

I ran the race in 32 minutes and 30 seconds. Certainly not super fast – but for my first race after my recent health scare, hospitalization, surgery, recovery and only getting the OK to start running again on March 25 – I was very happy with the results. A big thank you to my great friend Chris who was nice enough to run with me for this, my first race since the health issues. It was a lot easier running this race knowing that I had a friend running with me the whole time. The race was actually a lot easier than I had thought it would be.

The race was over (for us) just after 8 o’cock this morning. We went to the post – race area to grab some more water, apples and a cinnamon twisty thing, which was quite good. Chris grabbed some sherbet, and I snacked on my apple. In the race information packet, we were told that there would be chocolate milk at the post race get together, but after exploring a bit, I did not see any. I was a bit disappointed because I was really looking forward to some chocolate milk – it’s a great recovery drink and I love Monroe Diary. 😦

We took a post – race photo op thanks to a fellow runner:

After walking around the finish line area for a while, we got back in the car – where I finished the other half of my banana and drank more water. When we got back to my house I put some coffee on (I can’t believe I had been up since 5:30 in the morning, ran a race and had yet to have coffee at 9 o’clock!) and I enjoyed two big mugs. Eventually I changed into street clothes and went out to enjoy the rest of the day.

Before lunch, I bought a pair of Nike Frees – I cannot wait to run in them tomorrow. Chris and I went to Luxe Burger Bar for a post race lunch. I had a kobe hamburger with guacamole and a side of sweet potato fries along with a Magic Hat #9. A perfect post race meal 🙂

I hope you have all had a great Saturday. Tomorrow is the Providence half marathon and marathon… best of luck to all of the runners!