Back from my first race.

Things I learned when running my first race

• Preparation is key. Lay out all your equipment the evening before.
  
  
• Best to leave the hunt for safety pins till the very last minute, though.
• You can run faster than you think. Break away earlier and run a little faster.
• Only after starting a little slower, though. I was overtaken by just about everybody as the field dashed off downhill, but soon started passing people.
• Adrenalin will push you on.
• Tie your laces.

Things I loved about my first race

• The ladies who put their chairs up front to cheer on people they didn't even know
• PBJ afterwards!
• Meeting and chatting with great fellow runners
• Finishing respectably: 19th place, 3rd in division, just over 34 minutes. Considering there was an 8% grade for almost a mile (yikes!) I was pretty pleased. But I will do better in the next one!
• The fact that 3rd in Division sounds a lot better if you don't know that there were only five women in my age group
• The view from the top of the dam
• The cops cheering us on from their truck
• The people in Grand Coulee being, without exception, the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met
• Seeing Phil stand up to meet me as I rounded the finish line

Heading to the starting line

Things I will not eat the night before my next road race

• Chinese food reminiscent of that served in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, sometime in the mid-seventies.

Animals we saw by beautiful Banks Lake:

• Quail
• Mallards
• Canada geese
• Swifts
• Black-billed magpies
• One very small trout
• Robins
• Frogs
• One small field mouse, trapped under the bed
• One deer (dead).

What I did when I got home

• Registered for more races.

Thanks to Sarah and Silvia for good wishes!