YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME

That's how it went this weekend. I chose NOT to run the Heart & Sole race, annually held around Valentine's Day. The last time I ran it was in 2007, on a bitterly cold (3 degrees) day, just a few months after my accident. I wore Yak Trax even because snow cover on the ground was deep packed snow from an overnight snowfall. February is such a crapshoot for weather here, so you never know what you will get: either as described above or sunny and balmy, as it was this past Saturday when the race was held.

I hadn't signed up ahead of time because I honestly forgot about it, mainly since I'm not training for 5ks and also because the last couple of weekends I have dealt with the debilitating headaches and haven't put much time in and totally skipped my long runs, a staple of my running all year round, whether done inside or out, and regardless of how slow.

Then I found out the location of the race this year had moved, to within running distance of my house. Still, with the sun bright and the sky blue and almost cloudless, it was a hard decision: run long or run fast? Run fast was not an option, not having put much fast running in since before IM. And any fast running had not been on the road, so the decision came easy.

It was probably in the mid to high 30s by the time I got out to run, and halfway through the run (only 6 miles, since I had skipped a couple of weeks, so I could reacclimate my legs and lungs) I realized I was pretty much overdressed. So it was thoroughly--or almost-- enjoyable.

Then I decide to check race results out of curiosity, mainly just to see who was there and how they did. I was stunned when I found out there were only two people in my age group and the "winning" time was almost 40 minutes, and the 2nd place was over 45 minutes! Wow, and to think. I could have won the age group with a brisk walk! Or, as someone put it "just for showing up."

So, lesson learned. No more missing out on opportunities for winning bling! I have done many races where just showing up earned me an age group award, but as someone else put it, "showing up is 90% of life."