Race Without Trying: Bucktown 5K

After crossing the Bucktown 5K finish line

Bucktown: how I have missed you. Bucktown: you’ve changed…for the better. Bucktown: I think I might have to run you again…next year.

I’m not sure how a less-than-23-minute race could be so memorable, yet it was. Actually all of the short efforts I’ve run since July—thought few and far between—have been. But what made this 5K different:

• It must have been at least five years ago that I last ran this race. Correction: it was 2005, six years ago, and I was a first timer (but I felt like a course novice today, too).
• I barely slept the night before and almost didn’t go—my bed was very cozy at 7:30 a.m.
• I forgot how to dress for cooler weather running. Wake up to air temperatures claiming to be in the high 40s and I freak out, wear gear that’s ideal for standing in the cold but overheats the minute I start moving, and start feeling uncomfortable at the first mile. When you stand around the start corral and look at what others chose to wear for the race, you realize how many better options you left at home. Yes, arm warmers, pocket tank and lightweight Nike pullover, I’m talking to you.