Desert Classic 30K Relay

This was a spur-of-the-moment race spawned from my best running friend, Michelle.  When I say "spur-of-the-moment," I mean I woke up at 6am on Sunday morning with a text that said, "Call me."

Originally, I was not enthusiastic because the air was wet and cold from a night of gentle raining.  But, after slipping on my compression socks and swallowing a few sips of caffeine, I grabbed my Garmin and felt rather good.

I was running the first leg - a 5K - of a 30K relay race.  I arrived at the site and immediately began warming up.  Within the second mile, the rest of my team arrived.  We scrambled to the registration table and each began filling out an entry form.  We paused in unison when we got to the line item, Team Name.

After passing around blank stares, someone suggested Lady Runners, which we all wrote down in haste.  Well, everyone except me - I absent mindedly wrote our name as  sentence.

Thus, our official tame name: The Lady Runners.  

Michelle and I managed to coordinate half a team outfit (from waist down):

But then we failed to communicate this to half our team.

Even though not intuitive by team name or (lack of) uniform, we were a force to be reckon with.

Not to say that we I didn't drop the baton (which was really a wrist band and hard to pass) or that no one tripped and fell during transitions (at least it wasn't me) but we won for first females.  We were the 4th team overall - even our credentials could not compete with the teenage-boy cross country runners.

My 5K resembled the bulk of my 5Ks this year:

Mile 1:  6:00 (slight downhill)
Mile 2:  6:05 (sharp turn-around)
Mile 3:  6:06 (slight uphill)
.15     : 52
Final = 19:03

Earlier this year, a 19-minute 5K would have me gasping for air at the end and collapsing at the finish.  But this time, I sauntered over the finish with barely a drip of sweat.  OK - the sweat part was because it was freezing cold, but I do think I could have held on for another mile.

Maybe that means I should have ran faster, but maybe it also means that it is time to run farther.

2012 was the year of 5Ks.  2013 is the year of distances longer than 5Ks!  But nothing crazy like marathons.