Super Sunday 5 miler

COVID-19, “The Rona Era”

Today is my dad’s 78th birthday and Super Bowl Sunday. What makes today extra special is the fact that the Cincinnati Bengals are in the Super Bowl. That has not happened for over 30 years. So the city and the state are all super bowl, Bengal excited. Normally when I run this race, I’m doing it with my girl gang, my BGR members. This year, was the first time in two years that the race was in person, not virtual. I didn’t have any girl gang members run this race today. Some ran in Miami two weeks ago, others were running the Boston Marathon route this morning.

And, today I made sure to wear my Cincinnati WHO DEY shirt, to represent. Usually when we run, I don’t care who’s in the super bowl. I run 5 miles, hang out and party with some folks, then watch the super bowl and half time show goodness.

This year is very different. My friend Liz signed up for the race. I knew a couple of people that would be running. Unfortunately the weather is disrespectfully snowy and cold. The day before the weather was 58 degrees. Now, it’s 32 degrees and chilly. I knew I had to layer up and make sure my WHO DEY shirt was on top.

The 5 mile race started at 10a.m., the 5k started at 10:15a.m. I arrived at bib pick-up by 9a.m. When I got my bib number, it had the LA rams Vs. Kansas City Chiefs as the teams for Super Bowl Sunday. OH Helllll noooss. So wrong, so wrong. I had to scratch that out.

This year, the crowd seemed smaller than usual. That is alright, it was good to be racing. I wanted to test out my knee. I think I over squatted at crossfit and that was a week or so ago. My goal was to take it easy and run strong and steady. Yesterday I ran a 10k on the beach. Running 5 miles should be alright.

When we started, I worked on keeping my pace. I made sure not to stop and change up my speeds while running. I did eat some peanut butter on multigrain bread for energy. I still have to make sure to keep my body properly fueled up.

This race had so many volunteers and police officers on the race route. Which was great because some folks in their cars were not happy for the traffic delay. Around mile two, I knew I was almost done. Once we past parts of Harvard and made the turn towards East Cambridge, I knew I was almost done.

For me this was a nice jog. I was looking at the stores, coffee shops, and people walking by. I didn’t check my gps for time. I was paying attention to the mile markers on the street.

I know everyone was covered up but I believed I saw two blacks besides myself running. At the after party I saw three people. There was a rock band, playing rock- pop tunes. If you want to bring in more diverse people, there should be more diverse music, that was my two cents.

I kept running, strong and steady. When I finished, it was in 51 minutes at a 10:15 pace. That completely surprised me. This was a good gauge to know where I am, running wise.

All in all, this was my second race of the year( first one, was 1st run on New Year’s Day). And I ran this race with my WhO DEY shirt because the Bengals are in the Super Bowl. That has to be an overall win.