In Which I Continue Being Happy with Mediocracy

The funny thing, I suppose, is that I initially hadn't planned on doing this race Friday night. 

I'd gotten entrance to the Liberty Mile as part of a triple-registration deal when I signed up for the Pittsburgh half marathon, and the EQT 10-miler. I figured I didn't necessarily care about this short little race, but it made the registrations for the other two races price out to be super cheap. And I got a free pint glass when I did the "megaticket" at the marathon's expo in May. 

So the plan was to bail on this one, since it wasn't that far after Presque Isle, and really, why bother. 

But then they said there would be free beer. 

And, well, I like beer. 

Of course, it was threatening rain before the race. And it was humid. And then it started sprinkling. But there was a Starbucks by the start line, so I grabbed an iced coffee, and then waited. 

The official story was that I didn't really have a time goal. But of course, me being me, I had my secret goals. 

The realistic? To do sub-11, since I was hitting that sometimes in training runs. 

The stretch? To do sub-10, since I didn't think I could actually run a mile in less than 10 minutes. 

I felt bad for any of the kids in my vicinity when I passed the timing signal at the 1/4 mile mark. 

2:45

My response? "Holy shit." 

Because me? I'm not a runner. And in my head, even without looking at my Apple Watch and Runkeeper, I knew that that time was something I'd never hit before. 

And then I just kept going. 

Much to my amazement, Runkeeper recorded my time as 9:25, and the official chip time was 9:26 (I think Runkeeper must have started right after I crossed the start line).

Blown. Away. I have quite literally never run any distance that fast in my life. 

So I finished, managed to change into skinny jeans in my car (without getting arrested for indecent exposure, which tells me the universe must have liked me Friday night), and went to grab that dinner and a free beer. 

And happily checked the official results when I got home. 

To my happy surprise, I was solidly in the middle of the pack again for age/gender, gender, and overall. 

Apparently I can haul ass when free beer is at the end of the race.