The Lazy Lady: Inaugural Beck's 5k Race Report

There's not really much to this race report, since it was a small, inaugural 5k in a small town. I think there was only 100 or so runners, so yeah, SMALL!

I left the house around 6ish, since I wasn't sure how long it would take me to get to Palatka. On the way there, I was treated to a beautiful sunrise, which my horrible camera couldn't do justice. For me, there is just such beauty in an open field and a sunrise!

Beautiful, foggy, 2-lane sunrise!

Fog on open fields with a gorgeous sunrise!

Anyway, I got to Palatka around 7:30, and ended up scoring a great spot (one of the perks of being super-early!)

The starting area is where all those people are

Packet pickup was easy (again, so early!), but they had a lot of kids volunteering, and they couldn't find my shirt, so what would have taken 2 minutes took about 5. No big deal at all for me, but if it kept up when it got busier, that could be a crowd-maker.

Large swag bag!

The swag bag was stuffed full of cool stuff! (I'll go into detail later).

Race shirt, steel water bottle, lots more stuff

Since I'd gotten there so early, I took a pit stop at the potty (literally steps from my car), then wandered around the park.

Water fountain, unfortunately not working

Plaque for Veteran's Memorial Plaza

Is that a big torpedo, or are you happy to see me?

Veteran's Memorial Fountain, looking towards the finish line

Palatka Clock Tower

Start AND Finish Line

There was also a lot of pre-race snackage, and there was a volunteer there to help keep it clean, stocked and organized, which was nice.

Ubr (Ultimate Breakfast Round), bagged cereal, bagged snacks (also, bananas and oranges on the other side)

Dunkin Donuts coffee, Pop-Tarts, granola bars, cereal bars, Welch's fruit snacks

Yummy - Dunkin' Donuts Chocolate Glazed Cake Donut

Lastly, there was a lot of HEAT!!! Seriously, it's already past 70º out here, not a breath of a breeze in the sky, and the humidity is so high, you could wring out the air... Sigh, this will be hard.

After getting my Garmin and my Nike+ going, we lined up and took off!

Mile 1 came up quick (well, kinda quick) and luckily, there was water!

Mile 1 and Water Stop

While no ARC at Mile 2, there was another water station, which was dearly needed! Have I mentioned, it's really HOT out here today?

Mile 2, and another water stop!

While there weren't a lot of people out this hot morning to cheer us on, there WERE folks from the ARC (Originally "Association for Retarded Citizens")! I love being able to see where my race fee goes, and they were all really happy to be out there.

They're the group with the green shirts

Everyone wave!

With 2/3 of the race under my belt, I was feeling good, and thought that I would be able to finish under 50 minutes.

I passed Mile 3 and I was in the homestretch, so I gave it just a bit more and trotted on through the finish line.

Mile 3! Finish is right around the corner

Yay! I finished under 50 minutes, officially 49:42.

Almost there....

Boom, finished with a smile!

This pic was taken maybe 10 minutes after I finished, and I was STILL that red in the face!

If you really want to, you can see my sad-ass finish on YouTube, near the 31 minute mark.

Thank you, race director, or whoever was the smart person who had ice cold water and frosty wet washcloths at the finish line! I plopped a cloth on my head and tried not to pass out and I accepted my medal and chugged that water.

They were so cold, they hurt my teeth

A sopping-wet one of these got plopped right on top of my head, and another one on my chest

After I had cooled down a few minutes, I walked over to the river area and took a fun photo of my cute medal, then I checked out the post-race snackage.

Ooooh, artsy

Wow, there was a hell of a spread!! Quiznos (without veggies on it!), chips, granola bars, leftover donuts, so much snackage!!!

Quizno's Ham and Turkey sammiches, leftover donuts

I watched the awards, and then watched the raffle.

Beck was raffling off a new car!

Yes, they were actually raffling off a brand-new car! If you brought in 5 canned goods, you got 1 ticket. You could also buy tickets. I had no tickets.

Not a bad amount of cans for a tiny race

The trunk was full of bags that had prizes, such as fancy headphones, or portable power chargers, or even gift certificates, and one bag had the car (whoa, so meta). Unfortunately, no one won the car.

Once the race was over, I headed back to the car and found a gas station I could change clothes at, then headed to Golden Corral for breakfast. It ended up being brunch, because apparently they put lunch stuff on the buffet all day now? Nothing weirder then fried chicken, mashed potatoes, bacon and macaroni and cheese all on the same plate.

With nothing much else to do in Palatka, once I was fit to bust, I headed home and vegged on the couch!

Oh, and before I forget - check out all the fun swag!!