Mary tunes up at her own hometown 5K

With a big race coming up this weekend, Mary Smith decided to tune up by running a 5K in her newly adopted hometown of Norwood. Here's her report:

"I did a little seret racing this weekend! I couldn't resist, it was a 5K in Norwood (less than 1 mile from my house). I felt like a little bit of a Crazy Runner as I ran to the start of the race, ran the race, & ran home.

The St. Catherine of Sierra School 5K was a pretty flat 5K & probably would've been fast except it was so humid & sticky at race time. Plus it was to benefit the St Catherine School, so there were tons of little kids crowing the front of the starting line (but no one there would discourage any of the youngsters from getting into running....so we all patiently took a back seat to the kids).

It was just around some of the streets in Norwood. About 2 miles into the race I contemplated if I'd rather be running a 5K fast or a marathon!?!? I ran a 20:20 (no chip timing....it was quite low key), but I ended up being the 3rd women overall & 1st in my age group - I could see the 2nd women ahead of me the entire race....but just couldn't catch her. The best part was there was a cash prize ($100 for 1st, $50 for 2nd, & $25 for 3rd), which was nice because it paid for my registration fee.

It might not have been the smartest thing to do a week before a 50K, but it was a 5K in my newly established "hometown" so I couldn't resist...

Unfortunately no major politicians at the Norwood race (no governor or mayor).