Tomorrow morning, my little brother, Rob, and my little sister, Melissa, are joining me on a four mile race in Saratoga, the Firecracker 4.  Tomorrow’s race will be a lot of firsts.

First race longer than a 5K.
First race I’m not setting a time goal.
First race being run the morning after a late night out. (Chicago & The Doobie Brothers tonight at SPAC )
First race I will have my own paparazzi. (Mom has already been instructed to take LOTS of photos)
First race of the Annual Shugarman Siblings Who Laugh Together Run Together. (name pending sibling approval)

A few weeks ago, I ran another race for the first time – The Charlton Heritage 5K.  My boss Jen, her husband Jeff, and I headed to Charlton together to get our race on.

The race started quite late in the morning (10:30) and the sun was already our in full force when we made our way to the registration around 9:00 AM.

 

After we registered, we prepped for the race – pinning numbers, clipping on time chips, outfitting self with bondi band and sunglasses – you know, the normal.  There may have also been a few minutes of crazy dancing by yours truly, but thankfully, that wasn’t captured on camera.

  

I liked that our bib numbers were in numerical order.

    

You may be wondering how I did at this race. Let me put it this way – I finished. 
It was hot, sunny, shadeless, and very hilly. 
But I finished. I didn’t give up. Even when I wanted to roll down the hill.  I finished. And sometimes, that is all that matters.