Today was a momentous occasion for David and me. We ran our first 5K! Around my 30th birthday I made a list of things that I wanted to accomplish this year and one of them included running a race. So when my best friend Ansley called and said that she was considering doing the Shrimp & Grits 5K in Charleston I was reminded of this goal I had set for myself. Of course I pushed David to join us along with Ansley's husband Brandon because the more the merrier right!
This morning I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into when we woke up and it was 31 degrees outside. FREEZING!!!
Ansley and I made a pact that we would stick together and run the race side by side while the boys quickly sped off and headed to the front of the pack. I'm not normally a runner so this was a huge feat for me but I was amazed at how easy it was. We ran more than 2/3 of the race and made it to the finish line. I was SO proud of us! I had so much fun! I think I may have caught the running bug.
The best part about the Shrimp & Grits 5K is the free shrimp & grits you receive when you finish the race. It was delish!
After the race, little did we know, but the real adventure was about to begin. When we arrived in the morning, we ended up following a small flow of traffic into a fairly large parking lot. "Great! Plenty of parking close to the event!" After running and having our fill of yummy food and enjoying the band, we decided to head back to our car.
That's when things got a little interesting. A car pulled up beside us and the people inside said they had been driving around for about 30 minutes trying to leave the parking lot, but they couldn't. The only entrance was now blocked by a mass of people, tables and...the finish line! "Surely there is another way out!" So David and I along with our friends got in our car and circled the parking lot, but sure enough there was no way out! We were trapped. A few police officers said we would have to wait until the marathon was over (well into the afternoon...it was currently 10am). As 5 or 6 cars circled around, David spotted a very narrow walkway between bushes that led to another lot. Granted, this was extremely narrow and dipped down another a sidewalk. With no other option left, we all got out of the car to see if it could fit....and it would fit...by a few inches. By now we are drawing a small crowd who helped David navigate the narrow walkway with steep bushes and curbs along the side. Success!...or so we thought. Another driver met us on the other end saying he had been trapped in that particular area for over an hour. Great! After much conversation with the people around us we decided to take our chances...continue down the sidewalk and enter what ended up being the old Navy shipyard. There just HAD to be a way out that way...so many roads, so many options. Maybe the guy who was stuck didn't try hard enough.
Thanks to Brandon's iPhone we used the map app to try to find our way. "Head towards Avenue F" "You mean Avenue Failure?" "Operation Failure here we go!" Yes, David and Brandon were making light of the whole situation. Every road that we thought was an exit was locked up. Finally we saw a way leading to a road...which turned out to be the route of the marathon. The event staff said our only option was to drive through the barricade, avoid making the cops angry, and try to make our way out. So of course David just that and the next thing we knew we were face to face with a massive group of marathon runners all around us. David put on the hazards, drove calmly down the road, and the rest of us rolled down our windows and cheered the marathon runners on! (Yes we acted like we were the Encouragement Caravan). The runners definitely bought it as they highfived us, gave us the thumbs up (except for a few people who realized that a car really shouldn't be driving towards the runners on the road). We avoided the cops and continued on for miles. Laughing, nervous, afraid to run over someone, we finally made our way to safety (after several turns which of course always led to more runners, they were everywhere)!
The 5K only took us about 30 minutes to run, but leaving took about an hour and a half :) It certainly will be a memory we will laugh about for years to come :) Looking forward to our next race!
