She Runs by the Seashore

A few days before prom, I spent a few minutes picking out my dress, which I spent $10 on at the Salvation Army store in Salisbury.

The morning of the prom, I put on a sports bra and spandex shorts to wear under my sequined dress. I put my hair in a bun and put on socks and running shoes.

This wasn’t just any prom — it was the Tacky Prom Free 5K Fun Run, hosted by TriCycle and Run. I had been wanting to make it out to one of the store’s free 5K races in St. Michaels, and I had not made it out yet. This one sounded really unique and particularly fun, so I decided I’d do it.

For this race, which was on Sunday, May 15, the store was collecting sunscreen to give to watermen. There’s a different cause featured at each race.

Runners could predict their times and try to come in within 10 seconds, so I predicted 25:58 for my finish time. It was really more of an aspirational guess, because I’ve been running 5Ks in the 26s for a while and wanted to break that barrier.

The race starts out going into a neighborhood and then it goes onto the St. Michaels Nature Trail, which I’m pretty sure I had never been on before. I really liked this paved trail, and I think I’ll have to come back and write about it for my Scenic Runs section of this blog.

There were four turnarounds on the course. I thought it kept the race going along quickly and the other runners were probably the most supportive runners I’ve ever encountered in a race.

People were cheering me on and motivating me as we saw each other going the opposite direction. Some of them I had just met; some of them I didn’t know at all. I only knew one other race participant before coming to the race, but everyone was very encouraging and friendly.

I ended up finishing in 26:31, which did not quite match my prediction. I wasn’t disappointed, though.

Running without a watch didn’t hurt my time; it seemed like about the same pace I’ve been going for races recently, and it was slightly faster than my time at the Zoo Stampede.

Plus, I ran in a dress. Since the dress was on the shorter side, it didn’t impede me too much, although I did end up with some unusual chafing on my arms, which were rubbing against sequins. (The Body Glide I put on didn’t help, but as I told a few people, it’s not really meant for sequins.)

It was my first time running/racing in any kind of “costume,” or non-running clothes, at least.

After the race, I hung out with my friend Nicole and some new friends at the after-prom gathering at Eastern Shore Brewing.

I really enjoyed this race and look forward to doing more of TriCycle and Run’s free monthly 5Ks. To keep up-to-date on their races, like them on Facebook here.

Like She Runs by the Seashore on Facebook here.