Well, not my best time ever, and certainly not my best race, but it was fun! I have absolutely NO CLUE what my Race Overall Place or Race Division Place was, but I certainly didn't come in first. That had to be the coldest start line I've ever encountered. It had to be at least 30 degrees. Or at least, it felt like it. But once I started running, it wasn't that bad. I even took off my jacket and gloves. You know those hills that you don't really notice are hills until you're running on them? Those places where you're like, "Oh, that's so flat! So easy! I'll be fine." But when you're really running on them, all you're thinking is, "Uh, someone please remind me why I am a runner?" Well, the ENTIRE RACE was full of them. Except for one teeny tiny downhill, which was only a few yards long. The race itself was actually pretty uneventful. It was a little bit too warm for my tastes, and I have never disliked hills more. But the course was absolutely beautiful. For some reason, there were hot air balloons everywhere, and on the drive to Napa, I actually saw them when they were still on the ground. I've never seen that before, so that was pretty cool. Anyway, the really weird thing happened after the race. A bunch of people were walking around with medals after the race, and I was wondering if they were the age group winners or if everyone got a medal. So we headed down to the little room where the medals seemed to be coming from. I was talking to this lady in the room, and she was asking me about my name and my time and that kind of thing, and after I told her my time, she walked over to this other guy and said something, and they handed me a medal. ????? I'm QUITE sure I didn't win my age group, because number one, they would have told me, and number two, there were already people my age were hanging out in the chute and in the area where you go after the race when I got there. I suspect they were just handing out medals to the kids, because I didn't see any grown ups who ran the 5K wandering about with medals. Anyway, I had a good race, finished fast, and I got to hang out with my aunt and uncle (and their REALLY cute dog) afterwards. The dog was absolutely terrified by the high school brass band that was performing after the race, and quickly herded us away. This is a good race to run if you like hills. But at least I had fun, and that was the goal! By the way, congratulations to my wonderful mom, Snoqualmie, who ran the marathon, and to my dad, who is not on the blog, who ran the 5K with me. Good job you guys, and thanks!!!!! | 