Temple Beth El 5K

OK, so I was totally looking forward to this run, not because of the actual run, but because of the absolutely most delicious pancake breakfast after the run!! I'm so motivated by good food!! Anyway, I wasn't feeling up to par that morning, but whatever, I'm not competitive, I just run for the hell of it and because I can. Well, I got through the run after a rough 1st mile and then picking up speed and passing a ton of people in the last mile. I felt pretty good at the end, although I was off my best time by nearly 40 seconds. Whatever, I was still over 2 min better than last year when I did this run. Anyway, I'm off eating pancakes and yakin it up with friends, when I hear my name called......I started looking around and asking people why the heck they said my name?? Did I win a door prize?? What the heck?? Then someone told me they think I placed 3rd in my age group! Seriously, you have got to be kidding me. Who's trying to pull a fast one on me? So I go up and ask the guy if I was correct in hearing my name and sure enough, lowly little back of the pack runner me placed 3rd in my age group! I got a wonderful Medved waterbottle (to add to my collection) and some sample packets of recovery stuff and was on my way. On a normal day, my age group is incredibly competitive and I regularly rank about 18 or so in my group, so you can see how this was quite a shock! Anyway, I was just cracking up about this and then when I checked the times, realized if I had a good running day and any sense that there was no one in my age group running, I could have come in 2nd b/c I missed second by under a minute! It was a really slow day for the 30-34 age group! So now I will run every race as if I have a shot at getting something because obviously, you never know who is running from your age group! Lesson learned!!