The race started at 9 am, which, in comparison to most road races, is rather late for a summer race (& a road race in general!). So, not surprisingly, it was rather hot outside at that time, but nothing like DC heat (& humidity)! ;) Yes, it's all relative. :)

There was 1 water stop at the half-way point, which felt very refreshing. Thankfully, I wore my running visor & hydration belt, which helped a lot. I was very thirsty during the race, & even though I did hydrate the night before & about 1.5 hrs before the race, it apparently wasn't enough. ;)

The course was flat & fast, as indicated from what I'd read online. (This was my first time doing this race.)

Like me, there were lots of visitors from other areas running the race, who'd come in for the weekend to visit family & friends. People there were very friendly & social.

There were a lot of young kids at the race. There were one or two who kept stopping to walk & then started running again only when they saw people coming up behind them. :) I offered some encouragement to a little boy who'd stopped to walk; I turned around to look back & see how he was doing, & sure enough he'd started running again.

In many ways, it was a very typical small town race. When I had a question, the staff redirected me to the race organizer. :) Instead of timing chips & race bibs, we got a safety-pinned blue plastic "ribbon" with a sticker on the inside, which they peeled off & stuck onto a board at the end of the race. Since our own running club hosts a "low-key" racing series (with bibs but without timing chips, etc.), I wasn't too phased by any of this. Just went with the flow.

In fact, I joked afterwards with my family that I already felt like a winner, because they'd given me a blue ribbon. :)

My parents' bulldog, Lily Rose, was a "main attraction" at the race. People just loved coming up to her & petting her & asking us questions about the dog. Of course, she's very friendly & loved meeting people. She seemed to want to greet everyone who passed by with a friendly lick. :) She probably enjoyed the attention & affection as much as the people who interacted with her. ;)

Considering my sporadic & very sparse training, I felt like the race went fairly well. ;) Not sure of exact time because race results haven't come back yet. Will edit this & put more information here later, including official race results. :)

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UPDATE (on 6/15/09): Just called YMCA & got my finishing time. (They didn't have the results posted online anywhere & only the top finishers were listed in the local paper. And I already knew from the approximate finish time recorded on my stopwatch that I wasn't going to be in THAT list. ;) ) Note to self: If I do this race next year, gotta remember to stick around until the results are posted. ;)

Well, I originally thought I ran closer to 31:30, but that was just a guestimation at the time, since I didn't start my stopwatch right away after the gun went off.

Hmmm, 32:20 is exactly a whole 2 minutes slower than my 5K race pace on January 1st, i.e., the last time I raced this distance. (Clocked a 30:20 in that race, or about a 9:44 pace.) Not exactly my best 5K race time, but considering how much I trained for it, I wasn't expecting miracles. ;)

Also, haven't raced since May 3 (i.e., Potomac River Run Half) & didn't run that much in April & May, etc. So that probably explains it. ;-)

One can't expect results without training for the distance. It is what it is. Not going to beat myself up over it. I'm just happy for the experience, as it'll help me get back on track. The good news is that by doing these 5K races, each race helps me reach the larger goal - getting into racing condition, & refocusing on my training. Regardless of the the outcome, by racing on a regular basis, I am bound to improve. It can only get better from here. ;)

In fact, I got another 5K race next weekend, so it's yet another opportunity to improve & prove to myself that I can do better.

For the record, I did put in effort at the race, just not enough training beforehand. ;)