So this morning I struggled out of bed after a near-sleepless night and prepared for my first road race in over five years.  True, it was only a 5K.  True, I had limited expectations.  But I still had a wonderful time, and learned a thing or two that I can apply to my next race(s), because I’m DEFINITELY doing more of this in the future.

My goal was to complete the race at a 9 minute/mile pace, and I exceeded that with an 8:43 minute/mile pace, 27:04 overall.  I rarely felt like I was going too slow or too fast, and finished strong with a little bit left in the tank.

We ran an out-and-back course along 5th Avenue, with a slight detour at Vine down to 2nd avenue and up the back side of Seattle Center, finishing right by the International Fountain.  The hardest part for me?  Right around mile 2, I felt like I was going a bit too fast, and focused on my breathing for a minute to get back in my rhythm.  The easiest part?  Relative to the other runners, the uphill sections felt easy – all the stair work has developed my quads into hill-climbing monsters.  I passed a lot of people on the two uphill sections.

What I learned:

• Don’t arrive too early.  Prompt lil’ ole me showed up at Seattle Center at about 7:00, which was about 45 minutes too early.
• There is no bag check for the 5K.  This, I should note, is contrary to what is in the race guide.  I had to run back to the car to deposit my warmup layers and bag before the race.
• The little ankle strap that holds your chip timer can chafe.  Wear it around your sock, not your bare flesh, because I got chafed and a little bloody.  No big deal.
• Figure out where you should start based on pace, and elbow your way in.  I spent the first half-mile evading walkers and other slow runners, because I started too far back.

The nicest part?  Seeing my kids near the finish line with homemade signs that said “Yay” and “Daddy”.  That was unexpected, and warmed my heart.  Both my kids said they want to run a race, which gives me about two years until they’re faster than me

It was also great to see fellow geeks @marinamartin and @awoods at the starting line.  Looking forward to seeing both of you at the Jingle Bell Run next month!

I had a nice chat tonight with a friend who is a published author.  True, his work is only available for purchase in the UK – some weird tax ruling has yet to be put in place, I think – but still, published.  He’s a super guy and chatting with him brought back wonderful memories from elementary school and junior high, when life was young and bright, a newly-pressed penny, and one was optimistic and bold or timid as the case may be; when traumas were all of the made-up sort (in retrospect, obviously); when the weight of the world was not yet yoked around your shoulders, immense, solid, visible even when you shut your eyes, peripherally omnipresent, soundlessly pulling you down to earth and dust.

Chatting with him also reminded me that I have short stories floating around and I need to carve out the time to put them to paper.  I think I recently mentioned I have thought up a new story – but  it’s not a story until I write it down.   Then it’s a bad story.   Then I edit, and it gets better; then it gets submitted, and rejected, and I edit again, and it gets a little better; until finally some publisher, drunk on wine or reeling from a bad day, accepts it at a flat fee of $75 to be published in the Rural Vermonter Quarterly; to be read by seven people, four of whom are Facebook friends of mine.

Then, as a published author, I can develop a drinking problem, a penchant for shotguns and sayings like “birds on the wing”, and start flame wars with editors who reject my magnum opera.

But! – get published first.  The cart goes after the horse, the better for the cart to realize that the path can oft be a shitty one.

In other news, I’m being asked to look at a new change in my life as an opportunity.  I suppose that this should be the default attitude, right?  Every change is an opportunity, a chance for growth, for learning, for perspective – but right now, part of me is still very firmly rooted in a Never-Never-Land of the past, where I’m dueling Captain Hook to taste the drops of water left on deck from the splash made when 2009 was dropped overboard.  I have to shake that sort of thinking, and move on to more positive terrain.  It’s an incremental journey at best, and like a good game of chess, full of reversals and board positions that are better or worse and uncertain outcomes and hundreds of opportunities to make the right decisions.  Unlike chess, however, it doesn’t really matter who wins – black or white – because here the object is merely to get to the end, to put in the time, finish the game, fold up the board, breathe a sigh, and move forward.

Today I went to the Seattle Marathon Health and Fitness Expo at the Westin and picked up my race packet for tomorrow’s 5K.  It was only sort of a madhouse, with tons of vendors and relatively few freebies.  I should have taken photos – I’m a curator of my own experience, along with the rest of you, after all – but forgot.  Tomorrow morning I line up with the other runners and will have a post sometime this weekend describing my experience.  Wish me luck!