Saturday night was just your normal evening: go for a run, hang out with a couple hundred other runners and be a hot sweaty mess. Not your average Saturday night? Sounds ideal to me, but I’m sure it wasn’t to a few of my friends who tried their hand at their first race. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have friends who don’t truly enjoy running. So what do I do about this? I try to get them to become runners!

Months ago I mentioned to my friends the Winking Lizard race, and I may have told they they’d get free beer if they ran two miles (small white lie, no big deal). As time got closer, I kept bribing encouraging them that they really should sign up. They’d get a free t-shirt, food, glow in the dark necklace, beer and they’d only have to run two miles. I may have even batted my eyes a few times and given them a sad look until they gave in.

I didn’t have too many expectations going into Saturday’s race. That morning I did a hard 10 miles and my legs were feeling it all day. I also knew it would be super crowded for the first mile and there could be a possibility of us walking or stopping at any point. I planned on pacing the group at an easy pace. I knew it would be humid and like most runs after work, harder to breathe. We met up, picked up our race tee’s and waited to get the race started. The starting line was pretty crowded, but they did a good job at keeping the 4 milers to the left and the 2 milers to the right.

Some kind of bells, maybe jingle bells were shaking, and we were off! It was a walk/jog to cross the line and then the 4 and 2 milers split off pretty quick. I made sure we had everyone (a group of 5 is not easy to run side by side) and we tried to find a pace that everyone was comfortable with. The first half mile was pretty flat, and it quickly brought back memories of Cleveland Half, only this time, I wasn’t struggling to get to that finish line. We got to the bridge and we slowed our pace, but finally got to the top, hoping they’re be a water stop. Nope, just lots of people sweating and out of breath. The first mile went over well and now we were in the home stretch.

The second mile we walked a bit and then ran a bit, and we did this a few times. We started as a group and wanted to finish as a group, we didn’t want anyone left behind. We came down the bridge and made our way to the finish line. Darren of course had to sprint ahead of everyone just to say he beat me. No worries, I still beat him for running the most miles that day.

Overall I felt great. I was really surprised with how loose my legs felt after that morning’s brutal run. It was a great event to do a fun run with friends and the post run party had a lot to offer. I liked that we got to run together rather than one after another like normal relays, it made it more fun.  This is definitely something we’re looking forward to doing again next year.

Garmin Time: 20:57  2 mile, 41:41 Team time

Co-Ed Team Place: 62/93

Overall Personal Place: 214/327