So I decided to do it. At 6:30 Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and got ready to go. Christine, my ride to the race, warned me that she'd checked the weather and it was 50 with a good chance of rain. I went back upstairs and grabbed the long-sleeved shirt I had. As soon as we stepped outside, we discovered that it was already running. Fantastic. I silently hoped that by the time we got downtown, the rain would let up. Maybe. A bit.

It didn't. We found the registration tent and got me signed up. Then we looked for Christine's sister, who was meeting her there. Then we looked for somewhere to stand where we might just maybe be able to get out of the rain. Finally, after a little more than half an hour walking around in the cold and windy rain, it was time to line up for the start. It was definitely warmer in the big mass o' people, so we just hung tight and waited for the race to start. We realized that we were both planning on running about the same pace (30 minutes for the 5K), so we decided to just go ahead and run together. It was right about now that Christine turned to me and said, "You know what the sick thing is? This is the kind of day where if I'd just gotten up to go run, I'd go right back to bed. Yet I'm willing to pay someone to let me stand around for an hour in this crap before I run 3 miles."

Minutes before the start of the race, they announced that they'd be delaying the start by 15 minutes - apparently traffic was backed up more than usual, and runners/walkers were still making their way down to the start. Which, whatever. Rather than spend another 15 minutes standing out in the rain, we headed over towards the first-aid tent - we were able to get a little bit of shelter, and they had a heat lamp sitting out front. Definitely an improvement. Finally, it was time head towards the start. Again. But for real this time.

After the race started, we discovered we'd gotten stuck behind a huge pack of walkers. There was much weaving and running on the sidewalk - I remember when I first ran the race 2 years ago, I saw all of the people passing us by on the sidewalks and thought, "wow, they're really fast." Now I was one of those people - go figure. I noticed right away that the course was the reverse of the one I ran in 2003 - then, we started out running around the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Browns Stadium, then went through downtown before coming back around to Voinovich Park. The nice thing about that course was the downhill finish - I clearly remember that downhill finish, since I was dead and spent by that point and just Ready To Be Done. This year, it made for a slightly uphill start.

The race just flew by. As we were coming around the back of Tower City, I looked at my watch and realized we were right around the halfway point, and 17 minutes had already passed. I couldn't believe it. As we were heading back down towards the lake, a spectator yelled, "only half a mile left!" My first thought was, "that's it? Already?" Since I wasn't standing around getting drizzled on anymore, I'd warmed up nicely and wasn't all that cold anymore. Nor was I really ready to be almost done - I was just getting started! (Which was such a change from the 2003 race - then, when I got down to the last half-mile or so, I wanted to stop and walk and go home, but Ken kept me going. That race seemed endless, where this one was so very short.)

We picked up some speed on the downhill next to Browns Stadium, and kept going at the faster pace since we were so close to being done. I checked the Forerunner a few times in here, and it told me I was running at an 8:00 - 8:30 pace - of course, it also told me I'd already run 3.25 miles, so I took it with a grain of salt, as usual.

Of course, the faster pace caught up with me right before the finish, but since I was running with someone, I sucked it up and kept going. We crossed the finish line right around 31 minutes - the reading on my Forerunner was 30:49, but I remember seeing a 31:xx on the official clock. Either way, I'll take it, especially since we had so many problems with crowds at the beginning. Sadly, I don't have splits - I turned off the auto-split on the Forerunner, thinking I'd take manual ones at the mile markers. Of course, I'd forgotten that this race doesn't have mile markers. Oh well.

We walked around the race for a bit, picking up free foods and other samples (free Lip Smackers from Bonne Bell!), before getting completely sick of the cold and drizzle and deciding it was time to head home. I had planned to head back out for a wee bit more running after the race, but in that weather? I decided it wasn't worth it, and just took a fantastically wonderful hot shower, and then curled up on the couch under a blanket. Aaaaahhhh.