Killer Kudzu

This past Friday, a couple of friends and I ran in a 5k in Holly Springs: the Killer Kudzu 5k. It was the first one I have ever done and I thought it would be a pretty good experience to have if I want to do this Triathlon in June. It was a lot of fun--Holly Springs is a little Mississippi town, and the course took us through some nice areas of town. At one point I ran by this well-dressed 40- or 50-something woman sitting on the steps at the front of her yard drinking a glass of wine as we ran by. For some reason I liked that; it was nice to know that while I was running in this race there were people having a nice, relaxing time. Though the next 15 minutes or so (by that point) would suck for me and probably go by very slowly, I'd likely be finished by the time the woman needed a refill. Strange thing to think about while you're running, but I did.

There were two things that really sucked, though. At some point on the course we had to run around a cone and come back down the hill we just ran up. At the bottom of this hill, there was a woman giving out water and also (supposedly) marking the turn-off where the course ran through a cemetery (which was cool, though there was a really steep hill in that cemetery). For some reason, this woman wasn't telling people they needed to turn, and as I ran by her and got some water I kept on going past the turn for a good 50 yards or so. I finally realized it when I got BACK to the 2 mile marker. Man was I pissed. There were probably 8 people behind me (I was leading my pack!) who did the same thing, and they probably weren't happy either. When we turned, all those people were now in front of me, which was also a kick in the pants. I ended up passing most of them again before the finish, but that's the other thing.

At the end of this race you were supposed to run to the end of this column of cones where a woman would give you a card with a number on it. This number matched a number assigned to your time--I'm guessing it was your place. Well, since this was my first race and they didn't tell us we were supposed to do this, I didn't make it to the woman fast enough (she was standing a good 10 yards past the finish line--at that point, I wasn't thinking about needing to go any farther) and some other guy grabbed my card. The woman got all flustered and wouldn't get it back from the guy, so my time time got all screwed up. So I'm not sure if the race organizers will get me down or what--some guy who seemed to be in charge gave me another card and told me he'd take care of it.

So anyway, with the missing the turn crap, I ran my first 5k in 22:46 (I think that was the time I saw when I ran past the line. I know it was under 23 minutes), which I think it respectable for a first race. Hopefully they'll get it worked out and figure out my "official" time.

Despite the screw ups I really had fun, and am looking forward to doing another one. And the best part is, if I actually run the course as it's supposed to be run, I should have no problem beating this time!