A 5k, a face plant and family

This Saturday I ran my worst race ever. The race itself was fun, but my less than steller performance left much to be desired. But first I'll give a little race review.

It was the Rock Roll and Smile 5k in Gunter, TX, a little town just west of where I live. The race was close and only $20 so I was in. It was labeled a "trail" run and I guess it kind of depends on what you deem to be a trail. It was an out and back course on 1 part pavement, 1 part mowed grass path, and 1 part gravel road. They had a few of the local kids who were in their own little garage bands come out and play at the start/finish line and at mile 1. They were pretty good too. They had water at the turn around and bagels at the finish. They let us all wait for the race start and use the restroom in the clubhouse. The race was at an equestrian center/golf course so the facilities were really nice. They didn't time us, but that's ok. I have a stop watch and it's not like I was out there to kick everyone's asses and win a trophy. All in all, I had a really good time. It was cheap and I still got a t-shirt. That's a win in my book.

You know it's a tiny race when cars are driving behind the runners at the finish.

So anyway, lets talk about how horrible my run was!

Part of what made my terrible run fun was that it turned into a family event. From the left we have ME! trying to stretch and calm a cranky 4 year old at the same time. In the middle is my step sister, Mandy, doing pretty much the same thing with a cranky 2 year old. Then on the right we have my step-bro-in-law, Johnsa, not calming any children... at the moment.

And here's me stretching.

My Dad ran too, but I'm not even going to talk about that, or how he beat me by at least 1/4 mile. Nope, not gonna mention that. But I did see Haven (on the right) and Brittany (on the left)! They are sisters and their family owns and runs my favorite place to eat. This was Haven's first race and She was AWESOME! Brittany is a bit of a veteran and she was equally AWESOME!So, in a nustshell, this is how my race went... I wore my vibrams just so A) I could look awesomely weird, and B) try them on a "trail" run. The lesson that I learned was that vibrams are fantastic on grass, and small crushed gravel. However, they fail miserably on large, just dumped it out, holy shit that hurts gravel. I had to walk through most of the gravel. I also started way to fast. I got a little cocky about it being "just a 5k". Then, at the very end when I was back on the pavement I decided to pick up my pace. I was coming around the left side of a girl who had passed me back at gravel hell. Just as I got in front of her this crazy, misplaced shadow tripped me up and I went down. The girl, of course, yanked out her ear buds and turned to help poor little ole me. I jumped up as quickly as I could and pretended that I meant to that.

So short story long, this 5k kicked my butt and left me with a scraped knee, a sprained wrist, and a bruised ego... but it was still a lot fun, and I still managed to finish in 30 minutes. Not too bad considering I bit it.

Then immediately after the race I headed to Oklahoma to hang out with my Grandma. Every time I go there, I get pulled over in the same little town of Alex. Both times I have been let off with a warning. I like to think that this time it was because of my leopard skirt. That cop had to be thinking "this poor stripper has two kids, and from the looks of things she probably isn't making that much money".

I had a great time at Grandmas. I got to hang out with my favorite uncle and meet my cousin's wife and see his two boys. It was pretty fantastic weekend.