If you know me, you know I am a pre-planner for sure and my race calendar is usually being filled up months in advanced. Last week, I learned about a race fairly local to me that was being held on Sunday. Since I had to get a few miles in, I figured that this was an excellent opportunity to get out and support my local community as well. The best part was that the race was only $10! Yes, a $10 race! Lakeview Back to Health 5K here I come! The course was definitely one of the more challenging courses that I have ran. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger though - right? With an out and back course that consisted of a lot of rolling hills and a few tricky angled roads followed by an uphill finish the last 200 meters or so, there the course kept you on your toes the entire time. Sometimes while running I often think I am having "running hallucinations" and see or hear odd things around me. Well, shortly after passing the first mile, I came across an odd sign. The sign looked like a horse crossing sign (which is not unusual in rural Georgia), however this "horse" on the sign had short and dumpy legs. I thought to myself 'is that a donkey on the sign?' - there is no way that there is a donkey crossing sign. Sure enough, about 30 strides later I passed a pasture that suddenly had about 12-15 donkeys running and "hee-hawing" at the runners as we when by. This was totally unexpected and very entertaining to say the least. Thank you dear donkey friends for the cheers along the way - it was much appreciated. Despite a few challenging hills, I was quite pleased at the way I ran. I ran a pretty even race with my splits being consistent along the way despite being about 2 minutes slower than I would have liked to be. Once I finished, I waited for Momma K to approach the finish line and cheered her on to finish strong during that final hill. The post race area hosted a health and fitness expo where participants & volunteers as well as their family and friends could take part in different health screenings and learn more about ways to live a healthy life. The different tents included health screenings for blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, weight and BMI along with other information about reducing stress, weight loss and overcoming different addictions. I liked how this race had a different type of post-race area then most races. It was great to see that rather than providing runners with post race snacks and information from different sponsors that they used this as an opportunity to help promote healthy lifestyles. The awards ceremony got a little chaotic, but was not the fault of the race directors by any means. Apparently, a few runners did not get tagged with their ages by the timing company, so the race results were wonky. They got to my age group and announced the 3rd place and second place winners and their times which I beat both so I was pumped to claim my 1st place award. Well, 1st place wasn't me as well (she was slightly faster than me). Yep, I was one of the few without an age. The timing company had already packed up and left by the time the race directors realized that the results got messed up so they manually helped figure out the correct placements. The race directors handled everything very well and helped make sure that everyone received their correct award - including my 2nd place medal! Whoooop! It was a morning full of award winners for sure! My friend Jessica won 3rd place overall for women, Momma K won her age group (she was actually the oldest woman in the race), and a 2nd place age group finish for me. This was a great local race despite the hiccup with the results. I will definitely be adding the Lakeview 5K to my calendar for 2016 - I need to tackle those hills again for redemption and see my donkey friends again! Question of the Day: What is the oddest thing that you have seen while running?
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BrandiI love to run and most importantly I love to have FUN while I run....I am the "Funner Runner" Feedspot's Top 100 Running Blogs
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