The run was great. At the mile 2 water stop, I realized that I was pulling just over 10-minute miles. That's a first for me for that distance. About mile 8 I caught up with a lady I'd been eyeing since she passed me at mile 1. We chatted for a bit, and got passed by some people. My time would have been better if I hadn't slowed down to talk to her, but the run probably would have been more painful. And if you can't enjoy it and help somebody else out, why run? I'm not that competitive, yet. Except I could hear someone behind me on the last 100 feet, and beat the fourth place girl in my age group by five seconds. And she was a run-walker who had been making fun of us "just" runners earlier in the race. :) It also helped that Dad joined me for the last fourth mile. He's the one who got me interested in running many, many years ago.

Wear sunscreen. Drag my mom out of the house faster. Take the first gel earlier and actually use the second gu.

Walked around a bit, ate a HOOAH! bar (yes, they have designed an energy bar specifically for the U.S. military), stretched, drank water.


Talking to the lady from Valdosta.


It was a really good race considering it's an incredibly small venue. There were plenty of volunteers, well-placed water stops, miles marked well. My only gripe is that the 5K people took all size medium t-shirts and all the bananas. I gave the XL tee to Justin. But, really, when it only cost $20 to run, I don't have any complaints.