This morning I ran the 3rd annual Big Gay Race in Minneapolis. I hadn't run a race in over 5 years. I was nervous about it, but I've been running about 4.5 miles at a time fairly consistently, so I knew the distance would be no problem. I'm slooooow, FYI.

I got up with time to drink some coffee and have some "success" and a piece of peanut butter toast, then headed out. When I met up with my friends to drive over, it hadn't started raining yet, but it did once we got in the car. But it was warm--in the 60s? We parked and headed to a coffee shop for some caffeine for one of my friends (crazy kids--coffee RIGHT before a race?!). Then we headed down to the start, and even though it was raining, there were tons of people--lots of orange Big Gay Race shirts (they hadn't gotten the memo about not wearing the race shirt to the race), kids, and a few costumes. The governor came out for it and spoke, but I have no idea what he said. Then the National Anthem. Then I heard "Ready! Set!" and the gun went off. 

A couple of my friends were walking it, and they pushed me forward. "You better go!" I wove through the crowd. It's a social run, not a very race-y one, and there was a lot of passing at the beginning. The route was pretty: along the old brick-laden St. Anthony Main, across the Mississippi and along it for a little bit until the turnaround. An out-and-back route. My goal was just to go faster than 40:00. I hit the first split at under 12 minutes. I really wanted to walk at a few points, but I didn't. My mile splits slowed a little as I went, though. I tried to just count my exhales to 100 and start over and focus. Before I knew it I was running by cheerers and picked it up for the last little bit. 36:51. I'm happy with that.

I grabbed some water and cheered my slower walk/run and walk friends across the finish line. It was still raining, so we packed it in and headed home.

All in all, a success. I am now back to running races. Yay! 

Sounds like a good time--congrats on a strong race.  I wish we would have a big gay race in my state, but only about 30 people would probably show up.

WTG Obie.  DD was in town this weekend, so she could have witnessed the BGR.

Congrats

 

I found this line funny: " The governor came out for it"

+1

Nice work, Obie. I happened to be running the River Road early yesterday morning and saw the volunteers setting up and was wondering what event it was. Love the name. Too bad the race had such a late start so you had to deal with the rain.

Led-- I wonder if she did witness us! Ask her about a big orange blob taking over the riverfront.

Turned out, DD accidentally was on a training run against the flow of the BGR course, so she did indeed witness the event!  Oops.   FWIW, she's acquainted with the Gov's son.