Moonlight 4 miler

Any race that serves pumpkin bread and hot apple cider is a good race in my book.  Throw in a glow stick (am I dancing to techno at Eden with Reggie Miller?) and a race shirt that glows in the dark? I'm in. 

The race was a nice course that wove through downtown Indianapolis, with about a mile along the canal.  Very nice.  And, oh yeah, it was at night. So it was much different than I'm used to.  I've also not been running lately due to shin splints and plantar fasciitis, so I really just wanted this to be a fun run.  However, the competitive spirit always wins out, and I was passing all kinds of people in the first mile.  I hit the mile in 8:28 ish.  That is all well and good, and I try to focus on a girl in front of me.  I do so for awhile, until she stops for some water.  In a 4 mile race? Goodness.  Anyway, another lady who was running about the same pace as me and I run around her. I try to stick with that lady, and finally pull away from her.  My second mile is about 8:54.  Ohh. I didn't feel like I was slowing down; better run my own race and not focus on other people.  I put in a spurt to distance myself from the people behind me.  Then I remember, I don't know what my own race is! I haven't been training, and I've obviously lost alot of fitness from my stellar running season last fall/early spring.  Oh well.  I just keep chugging, mostly by myself.  I pass a guy around the mile 3 marker and I have slowed even more, 9:03.  Are you joking - I haven't run this inconsistently for a few years.  Ugh.  I try to pick it back up, but my lack of training has seriously become apparent.  I am running alone, I can see the finish line, but it is a block over - we still have to go up and back.  That is so not a funny trick.  I am still passing people (that is one thing about passing people early - if you don't want to get passed back and look really dumb for going out too fast, you gotta keep the pace up.  Luckily, I was only passed by one person right at the 1 mile marker.) Finally I head around the turn and see our truck. I start my finish "kick", if you can even call it that, and my last mile is 8:46 for a total of 35:16.
So, my time wasn't great, but it was enough for a PR.  I also got 2nd in my age group and won a $15 gift certificate for that! And I already mentioned the pumpkin bread, but who doesn't like hearing that twice?  The lady who won my AG had an 8:02 pace; if I were properly trained, I could have given her a run for her money (last year at the Drumstick Dash I ran under 8 minute pace for 4.5 miles).  I would definitely recommend this race and would love to do it again next year.