I signed up for my first 10K at the Heart of Virginia Festival in Farmville, VA. Sounds picturesque, right? Beautiful trees swaying in the wind, a babbling brook, sounds of nature etc etc. What I didn’t account for was the fact that this was more of a “nature run” with a tightly packed gravel trail that made me feel like I was running on a beach of disappointment. Seriously, that gravel had me questioning all my life choices – especially signing up for this race.

To make things more interesting, only 32 people participated in the 10K, while over 130 people (including my husband) did the 5K. Did I mention my husband hadn’t trained at all? He signed up on a whim and just casually knocked out the 5K like it was no big deal. Meanwhile, I was halfway through my 10K, wondering if I could hitch a ride on one of the bicycles passing by. Spoiler: I came in dead last which adds to the irony of the fact that I told my husband, “as long as I don’t come in dead last, I’ll be happy” right before the race. To be fair, the people who had signed up for the 10k were either Olympian sprinters in their past life or they had all made a pact to make this race as embarrassing as humanly possible for me. Yes, I’m dramatic – welcome to my blog.

At one point, I swear, I thought they’d sent out a search party for me. Bikers kept whizzing past, and I couldn’t tell if they were fellow race participants or volunteers sent to make sure I hadn’t wandered off into the wilderness to rethink my life.

There wasn’t even a finisher medal at the end. After all that hard work, not even a shitty, shiny piece of metal to hang around my neck! I’ll say it AGAIN – I’m only running for bragging rights and medals. But I guess the real medal was the blister I got and the deep sense of existential dread halfway through the race.

Thankfully, post-race wasn’t all bad. My husband and I wandered around Farmville, checking out the festival and vendors. So, I suppose it wasn’t all for nothing—though a medal would have been a nice touch.

Oh, and I met a bunny!

Moral of the story: gravel is evil, and my husband’s “no training, no problem” attitude is both inspiring and infuriating, bunnies are cool.

Happy running (and gravel dodging)!

This is my watch mockingly telling me, “it’s race day!” Like I forgot…