after thursday’s bridge run, tat talked me into a midnight 5k race that she thought was happening friday night.  since i knew my cousinwould be arriving late friday anyhow, i figured i’d mention it to her and if she just wanted to come watch, that would be fine.  when i went to get more details online, i realized it was actually happening saturday night.  this made writersblock much more interested in the event.  so, after a day of resting, wine-tasting, and feasting with my favorite cousin and cousin-in-law, it was time to go run a 5k race together.  i’ll be honest, around 22:00 i was doing my best to talk her out of it.  “bed sure sounds nice.”  “i won’t be upset if you don’t want to do it.”  “we can just run tomorrow if you’d prefer.”  but she dragged me, kicking and screaming, off my comfy couch at 23:00.  we got there, got registered (what?!  no shirt?!!! what a ripoff!!!), and still had several minutes to stand around and take pix. 

finally, just a few minutes before midnight they started lining us up.  this was the starting line but you can’t see us since we’re waiting in the back of the pack.  don’t want to get in the way of the runners afterall.

this was the start of the back-of-the-pack.  look at how awake we looked at midnight!

the run… was great.  i actually had a lot of fun with it.  i kept a slow and steady pace so as to not leave my cousin by herself.  frankly, it was a bit scary running down some of those downtown residential streets in the middle of the night with nobody else around.  as for her, she wasn’t enjoying it nearly as much as me.  before we had reached the one mile marker, she already had a screaming leg.  she’s much stronger and more dedicated than i am… when my leg hurts, i stop running.  anyhow, as the run continued and i still felt good, i started allowing myself to get up ahead of her a good piece and then circling back behind her.  my guesstimate is that i actually ran between 3.4 and 3.5 miles instead of the 3.1 equivalent of a 5k.  this makes my average pace much more acceptable given my finish time.  we didn’t get into a more safe-feeling and populated zone until the last half mile.  once we did, i gave it my all.  i was quite pleased with how much i had in me still.  i really felt like i made a strong finish and it was nice to have the cheers pushing me through. 

shortly thereafter, my cousin made her finish.  i am so proud of her for running through that pain.  i just couldn’t.  she totally rocks!