#TwitterRoadRace

I was running down the road. It was just me and my dog to the average observer, but I knew there were other runners there. I could see them race ahead of me at the start as they have done in races past. I could hear their encouraging words and us laughing at the silliness of running through the mucky mess the streets had become overnight. I even ran through a water stop no one could see but me — wishing I could pick up a cup to wet my mouth. And at the end, I could see me passing others as they ran out of steam toward the end so I could blast across my finish with a fancy new PR (00:36:41).

Our starting lines were anywhere we chose with a finish line 3.1 miles later after winding through any route our hearts desired. That’s the beauty of a virtual race, and it was so stinkin’ much fun I can’t wait to do it again! And who doesn’t love free registration for a race? Many thanks to our Race Director Doug Cassaro for coordinating the whole thing via Twitter.

I had a 3-mile long run scheduled for training for the Capital City Half Marathon, which coordinated perfectly with the #TwitterRoadRace. It also completed Week 2 of my training, and it was a fabulous end to the week. My dog handled her longest run to date well, too. In fact, for the few short (1-min.) walk breaks I had to take, she would give me a puzzling look wondering why we were slowing down. The 3 miles seemed to fly by, and I got lots of funny looks from neighbors driving along who didn’t understand why I was out in the frigid temps and many inches of snow that were dumped on us the night before (the roads had been plowed, but they were still a beautiful mess). Honestly, I didn’t really understand why I was out there myself, but I don’t regret it. Doug also mentioned more #TwitterRoadRace to come, and I’m really looking forward to that! Hopefully I can work it right into training for the spring half marathon as seamlessly as it did this time

Curious to know how everyone did? Tune in on Twitter at 9 p.m. EST  tonight by clicking here.