Yesterday, I did the Cross Country Classic 5K trail run at Lincoln Park. As many of you know, I am not a runner, but I figured what the heck,I would give it a shot. At the very least, it was way shorter than that 5.5 mile trail run (uh, walk) I did last weekend.

I registered for the race and then hung around talking with several TriGirls -- It was a great group to chat with before the race, especially when it started 30 minutes late. The race was organized so that the women went first, and then the men were supposed to head out 20 minutes later. When they finally said "GO", I was quickly outdistanced by the rest of the field. I am totally used to this, so it wasn't a big deal. We had two loops of the trail to do, and I was heading around my first big curve, less than a mile into the race, and I was passed by several women doing their SECOND loop. I was amazed. How is it possible that these chicks can go so unbelievably fast??

I finally got to the end of the first loop, only to be faced with the entire men's race clapping as I went by. Jen R. was beside me at this point, and she got to go straight at the end of the loop to the end of the race, and I had to make the left back onto the second loop of the course. It was a little bit embarrassing that it was so obvious that I was extraordinarily slow, but whatever -- I wasn't going to quit then. So I kept on plodding away. I didn't run through the sand pits, and I didn't run up the short and sharply slanted hill, but I kept on running the rest of the time. By the time I got half way through the second loop, I ran into Shari, who had run the course backwards to find me. She ran with me (at a nice cool down pace for her!) all the way back to the finish line, where I was the very last person to come in. Ah well, I can only go up from here, right?I finished this thing in 53:08, and two minutes after I crossed the finish line, the first guys crossed the finish line too --- at about 16:18. Isn't that amazing? I did get this horrible feeling that they delayed the men's race until I was safely out of the way, and if that is what happened, I am more than a little embarrassed, but I guess it was better that I was out of their way considering how fast they were.

All in all, it was a pretty good day -- it was great to talk with all those TriGirls at the beginning of the race, and it was good to get through the race and realize that I ran (albeit slowly) for more consecutive minutes than I ever have before. I might even be beginning to maybe like this running thing...