Upcoming Running Race in Gainesville

Well, it's been a while since I ran in a public running race.  Actually, it's pretty easy to tell how long it's been: my last race, the DeLeon Springs Half-Marathon, took place this past New Year's Day!  So we're talking six months, although I have still been filling that time up with 100 mile/month training runs, including my current personal record streak of 50 straight days of running.  Still, a little social context might do me well.  So...

The Melon Run, taking place on Wednesday, July 4 and presented by the Florida Track Club, may be just the hot summer running event for me.  It is a 5 kilometer race, but should I enter it, I won't be doing any racing.  No, I just want to hang out for a little while with some others who share this interest while performing a training run at my usual training pace. 

I ran in this race two years ago and was a little disappointed.  But this time around, my priorities have changed and it should be a fun experience.  I know one thing: I won't be lingering around the place for the "awards" ceremony, which largely consists of volunteers unloading watermelons from the back of a truck and handing them over to top finishers in the various age/sex categories.  And if they screw up the finishing times like they did last time, then so be it: like I said, my priorities have changed...
 
The race course is very familiar to me: the starting and finishing point is Westside Park, with much of the run taking place east of it, going down sidewalks on 8th and 16th Avenues and connecting them on a trail through Loblolly Woods Park (North).  

Registration for this race doesn't close until June 30, so I have a little time to mull over my participation.  If I sign up, though, I think I'll forgo the cotton tee shirt, which I will probably never wear and represents $10 tacked on to the basic registration fee.