Races Like a Girl

I ran in the Bronxville 5 Mile race this morning…and won my first award! First place for gender/age group, which netted me a hideous plastic trophy.

In the few races I’ve run, where I’ve placed in my gender/age group has depended on the size of the race and the quality of the competition. I’ve come in anywhere from the top 40% (big half marathon) to the top 10% (little 5K). My times are improving, but I’m not exactly straining the mantlepiece with the weight of awards.

Well, today I am a champion. My secret? Run in a race that almost no one runs in and that is scheduled on a major holiday weekend when most people are out of town. It’s that easy! 95% of the people doing the “fun run” were just running the 2.5 mile race. I’m not even sure how many of us ran the full 5 miles, but it did seem like the award:runner ratio was very high.

My time sucked, admittedly. I won’t even post it here. That was owing to the fact that it’s warm, extremely humid and the race is very hilly.

It will be interesting to see how my time compares in this race next year. I was the second or third woman to come in (not sure), so maybe I’ll make it my goal to be the first one in 2007.

Now it’s time for pizza and beer. Yay!

Postscript: It turns out that when I ran the course earlier in the week, I ran it backwards, which was a lot hillier. Going in the opposite direction front-loaded some of the most brutal hills and gave the most of the last mile or so a slight downgrade. I flew down that on the second lap, although some guy I’d passed earlier managed to pass me 20 yards from the finish line. I hate that!

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