She Runs by the Seashore

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From a Fork in the Road to a Basket of Deplorables to a Rubik’s Cube, there were plenty of creative costumes at the Sneakers & Creepers 5K this morning.

The annual free race, hosted by Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, brought plenty of runners out, many of whom were dressed in different kinds of costumes. I was thinking about getting some sort of costume item, but officially decided to run the race without much time to put anything together. I decided on an orange tank top and black shorts with a white design, along with my Batman socks with capes — I don’t have too many opportunities to wear those. (I got those for the Hero 5K in St. Michaels earlier this year.)

The Eastern Shore Running Club set up the clock and chute for this event, so I went to the start line, turned on my stopwatch on my phone when the race began and went back to the clock, which I’d set at 1:00, pushing the button for it to count up when my stopwatch hit 1:00. Then, I headed back to the start, turned on my watch and began the race.

It was certainly an interesting experience, starting at the back of the race and making my way toward the front (not to the front). I was able to see a lot of friends during the run, which was cool. The course goes up Smith Street, up onto Camden Avenue by Salisbury University and then onto Dogwood Drive and through the SU campus and back. It seemed to go by relatively quickly. I ended up with very consistent miles and a time of 28:29.

Early on in the race, I also found a penny, which was a nice surprise. I don’t find money often, but whenever I do, it’s when I’m not expecting it. This is the first race in which I’ve ever found cash.

As I was coming in toward the finish, I saw that I was nearing 30 minutes on the clock and figured I’d try to beat that, but I came in a couple seconds later. Of course, I knew I had banked the extra time in the beginning, and I was wearing my watch the whole time. My watch ended up with 3.16 miles, but I may have not started it at exactly the right spot.

It felt pretty hot out there, particularly for it being the end of October.

After finishing, I went in and got a bottle of water, half a bagel and a mini Twix bar — it’s a Halloween race, so I was happy to see candy! — before heading back outside. There were also door prize drawings and a costume contest, but my costume — the socks, if they count — certainly wasn’t good enough to enter a contest.

This run did get me to my highest monthly mileage so far in 2016 — 112.34 in October so far — and I still have one more day left in this month. It’s actually my highest mileage month since September 2015, when I ran 126.26 miles.

Splits:

Mile 1: 9:01

Mile 2: 9:09

Mile 3: 9:00

Last part (.16 on watch): 1:20

Total: 28:29

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