What I learned from the (FANTSTIC!) Round Church 10K

True confessions from "I never liked running": more than a week before GMAA's Round Church 10K I was secretly thinking up excuses to get me out of running it. And I'm so glad I didn't give into that impulse, because the race was such a fun day of running and celebrating.

Jess had recommended running 3 miles before the race to increase my mileage for the day, which keeps me on track in training for the Leaf Peepers 1/2 Marathon the first weekend of October. But running nine miles somehow seemed an implausibly huge distance. I still had a little jet lag, I'd barely gotten home from vacation, I'd been sick... what else? What else? The crisis in Syria? Locusts?

The Round Church 5K and 10K is a women-only race organized by GMAA. The out-and-back course starts at the Richmond landmark and goes out Cochran Road by the river. The day dawned foggy but burned into a bright blue, warm sun sky over 600-700 women running for the fun of it. I'm sooo glad I didn't skip this race.

I got to Richmond at 7:30 Saturday morning, got my race bib and headed across the iron bridge toward the village. The trail along the river around the park was awesome, the little side street neighborhoods were awesome, the Port-o-let line was not awesome, but I got in 3 miles and got to the Round Church just in time for the start.

A few fantastic people who were at the race:

• Emily, my friend of 10 years (is that possible?) who is now running with a central Vermont group called illume, and several of their runners were out in force in bright red shirts
• Jess, who answered questions, handled logistics, greeted runners and still kicked ass in the 5K
• Heidi, who ran hard in the 10K, and still waited around for me finish, and who ran the last mile or so with me
• Sasha, who I only know by her bright neon Fleet Feet shirt, and who ran my pace and who had an awesomely fun attitude the whole time
• Evie, a 9-year old I met in the first mile who was running her THIRD 5K; I was amazed

I love out-and-back courses because you get to see all the runners -- the fastest, the slowest, the marvelous middle of the pack. There was such a good mood shimmering over this race, with women of all paces and the ages cheering each other on and smiling through the sweat and miles.

And not for nothing, but I won a pot of purple flowers in a raffle after the race. Not too shabby! (Liz: "You won flowers for running? " Me: "No.. I won flowers AT running....")

So, I could have easily slept in and not done the extra three miles, I could have even skipped the race altogether and copped a reasonable excuse for doing so. But there's really nothing to gain by starting out with a mindset of "how can I get out of this?" What I learned from the Round Church 10K? Stick with goals that are realistically hard, and try to focus on the 'realistic' part rather than the 'hard' part.

Also, dress well. It makes you feel better.