Luv Me 5K

I really needed a race. There's nothing like a good race to get motivated, get the rust out, and see where your fitness is. There's a group on the coast called 'The Malawi Runners' and they sponsor a series of races in the Camden/Rockport area; they are affiliated with FreePress.org and, frankly, I want to find out more about them. They seem like a cool group of people. At any rate, they are great, simple races, and the 15 dollar entrance fee (pretty cheap for a race!) goes to help orphans in the African country of Malawi. Our friend Emily, the girl above in the purple vest, ran it with me. Emily and her husband--who is a professor at Colby--just moved here from Illinois this past summer. Emily is a three time over marathoner!

Callum is getting old hat at these races, but this was the first one for which Maira was cognizant and not asleep...haha. She was happy to be there on this raw, snowy day on the coast of Maine (especially when she had her girly pink Carhartt hat on!).

I ran so/so. I will now make excuses: a bit icy on the surface in some places, although the pictures dont emphasize that. It was snowing the whole time, and the course was 50% climbing what were DESCRIBED as "rolling hills," but were, in my opinion, a little more than rolling! I dont know if it was the nerves I usually get because I am such an easily intimidated person....orrrrr the caffeinated coffee (combined with my shot blocks, which also contain caffeine) I drank in the car on the way to the race....but LITERALLY 150 yards from the finish line I stopped cold. I could feel the vomit in my mouth and I felt nauseous and I knew I was going to throw up. I didnt, somehow, and I just jogged through the gate. I ran a 23 flat. I went out too fast though....my first mile split was a 6:36....I think the adrenaline got the best of me!

Here I am with vomit in my mouth, comin round the bend....

The race left from the Penobscot Bay YMCA, which is literally 1.2 miles away from downtown Camden, a place the Goldsmiths (Amanda, Jared, Callum, Maira, AND Henry and Babs) know and love well. I changed in the locker room of the Y, and then we went for lunch at Marriners Grill, which is a classic, 50's style lunch counter kind of place with simple food. Our kind of place. We love Camden.

It was a ghost town today though. Callum was a bit disappointed that most of the boats were away for the winter, but he still was enamored with the place--there were some shrinkwrapped windjammers out there, as well as some in-use lobstering and scalloping boats. Maira, too, is fascinated with boats lately....as she now is with SHOES....and really enjoyed telling us about all the "booooooooots." We met an interesting guy who is a guide for wilderness photographers, and he was "doing recon," as he called it, on some migratory birds for a client of his. He pointed out a couple of "Arctic Loons," which, until today, I didnt even know existed.

All in all a great day.