Today, Colleen, Gina and I ran our first ever James Page Blubber Run 5K Run, Walk or Whatever race in Minneapolis. This event has been going on for a long time (18 years!), but I’ve never made it there until this year.

What a great deal – $35 gets you a T-shirt, two drink tickets (James Page root beer or craft beers), lunch, finishers medal and post-race snacks (apples, bananas, chips and salted nut rolls). They also have prizes for people running in costume and for the fastest runner.

Some of the costumes were really creative. I especially liked the baby running on the grandma (who might have also been the fastest), the patient in the bed (with multiple doctors), the Mario Brothers family and the shark with the legs sticking out of its mouth.

I was running this race to set a new 5K PR and I have to say, this was different from any other race I’ve done. Most of the people were there for the beer, so I ran with a small lead group that was running for time. I’ve never been with a lead group before, so that was weird. I finished in 23:12 (7:30 pace) all by myself and was maybe in the top 15.

After I finished, I walked back to the on-course beer garden near mile two and met up with Colleen and Gina. We all walked to the finish, had lunch, then headed home. Fun times…