I originally registered for this race on January 1, 2020, and I’m pretty sure it sold out in less than a half-hour. There were limited spots for the 5K and some more for the half, but I was signing up for the 5K. The original race date was supposed to be in April 2020. Then cue COVID.

Overall, this race was postponed 4 times: from April 2020 to June 2020, from June 2020 to September 2020, from September 2020 to April 2021, and finally April 2021 to October 2021. For a while, I was convinced I’d never run this race.

I was running this with two of my co-workers, although they both would be doing the half. We found out a few days before another co-worker from our floor was doing it with her husband and she was running the 5K so I’d have a friend to hang out with. The half marathon race started at 10:30 a.m. and the 5K started at 11:00 a.m., so we’d finish before the half marathoners. I was tasked with claiming a table after I finished my race, which I completed successfully.

The weather was overcast without a lot of sun, so I was comfortable in a t-shirt and shorts, and I knew I’d get hot once I started running. (I’ve made the mistake of wearing crop leggings to a race before when I definitely could have worn shorts. This time of year is fun when it comes to dressing for running because it’s either, “Am I going to be too hot or too cold if I wear this?”) 

I was feeling okay until about mile 2 and then I ended up walking more than I wanted to. It had gotten a bit humid—or at least felt more humid—so my asthma was acting up a bit, and my legs felt heavy. (I had run on Wednesday and my lower thighs right above my knees were still a bit sore, plus I worked Homecoming on Saturday, which involves a lot of walking around campus.) At that point, I just tried my best and listened to my body. Once I could see the brewery again, which is where the finish line was, I made myself run to finish up the race. My time was 36:35, and I was expecting something around that, so I wasn’t too surprised.

I’ll be honest, though, I was feeling a bit discouraged as we waited around for the races to both start. I know that running a 5K is a feat in itself, but I was intimated by all of the half marathon runners. I think I had that little voice in the back of my head telling me a few things. One of them was that I wouldn’t be able to run the entire race no matter how hard I tried, even though the course was mostly flat. And the other was that I’m so slow and almost didn’t deserve to have a spot in the race. I listened to part of a podcast while I was running but I couldn’t really tell you what they talked about because I was so consumed with that little voice instead of distracting myself with the podcast.

But I have to look at the current situation: this race was moved 4 times because of a pandemic, that we’re still in; I’ve been extremely busy this past summer with moving into my condo and getting out and enjoying some parts of life again; and that I’m not running as much as I did in 2019, when I think I was in my better running shape. No matter where I finished in the race, I still got a t-shirt, medal, and beer after. People were still cheering us on as we came into the finish line. And just as I was looking up to the half marathoners, I’m sure there are people out there who look up to the 5K runners. 

I haven’t felt like this in a while when it comes to running; I worked really hard last year to focus more on how I felt running and my distance than my overall time or how many times I stopped to walk. I just think I slipped up a bit during this race. I feel like my race recaps are usually happy and fun, but I think for myself I needed to give a little bit of space to how I was really feeling and treating myself before and during the race so that I can look back on this and recognize that negative voice and the discouraging feeling.

So, with all of that being said, here are a few highlights from the day:

There were SO many doggos out on the patio where we were sitting. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to pet any of them but they all looked so happy.

The beer was really good. I got Fresh Pick and G-Fresh. I’m looking forward to going back to the brewery to try some more because it looked like they had a good selection.

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This was the last 5K race I was signed up for this year. I’m not sure if I’ll register for another one before the end of the year. Even though I was feeling discouraged, after this race being postponed 4 times, it was still worth it to run.