It's a Race People, Not a Beer Run - Dash Down Greenville 5K 2010

The Dash Down Greenville started off with driving to Mockingbird Station and taking the train UP to Lovers Lane. It seemed a bit backwards to go down, then up when my house is almost a straight shot, as a crow flies, to the race start but with parking issues and the potential for lots of drunk people around, the train was starting to sound better and better.

From Dash Down Greenville 5K

It was a COLD morning, way to cold to be waiting for the train or standing around waiting for a race to start! My friend Ginny, Jessica and I were FREEZING almost the entire time. The worst was just standing around waiting for the race to start. But the scenery was fantastic! Lots of people were there to see the race AND the parade so they were all decked out in green St. Patty's Day garb. Lots of girls in inappropriate short skirts and low cut tops too, not sure how they were doing it since I was freezing in pants, shirt and jacket. But God Bless them, someone had to give the guys something to look at!

From Dash Down Greenville 5K

Ginny and Carolyn

From Dash Down Greenville 5K

Jessica and Carolyn

We huddled together with the other runners while we waited to start. It was so packed for at least the first mile which made it hard to run a good pace, not that I run fast anyway, but I certainly don't need a pack of people in my way either! I'm not sure why but there were walkers, lots of them, near the front, and the race path was relatively small compared to the amount of people so as I started off I was practically walking. I tried to run and had to hop on and off the curb to get past the walkers. Such a crazy race.

As we turned the corner onto Southwestern, there was a water station, or what I thought was a water station, it only had beer! I kept running. I know it's a St. Patty's day run people but beer? As I am thinking about the beer and how ridiculous it is I come upon a HUGE hill. Not really...but any slight incline to be is a big hill. All I could think about at that point was to just keep running up the hill, not stopping at all - and I did it! I rounded the corner onto Skillman and felt so happy I had run up the hill without stopping. I normally consider hills to be my "walks" and do my best to walk quickly up but instead I found the motivation to just keep running.

I was about at the 2 mile mark when I decided I wasn't going to walk or stop, I had been running since the start and I was still feeling pretty good, another mile, no problem! (My normal running strategy is intervals with 5 minutes running and 1 minute walking but for 5K's, I try and run the whole thing now, a BIG accomplishment for me!) I didn't even stop at a water station!

I finished at 34:28. Three minutes faster than "Dash for the Beads" in February and just 45 seconds slower than my PR from last year. Considering the first mile was packed and we could hardly run, I consider this time to be wonderful!

Afterward we went to Ozona for a "make your own" Blood Mary, so good! A great ending to a fun race.

From Dash Down Greenville 5K

Now THAT is a Bloody Mary!