When it comes to races, I’m constantly trying to finish in a certain time or beat a previous time. Training includes carefully calculated speed work and tempo runs. Mile splits on my Garmin are monitored incessantly. And every detail is planned with precision – from race week rituals to the morning of the race to my race strategy.

This year’s Peachtree Road Race was different. The complete opposite, in fact. This was a race I ran only FOR FUN.

You might remember I put together a detailed training plan for this year’s Peachtree Road Race, only to cast it aside due to some nagging issues with my feet. I decided heavy speed work was not a good idea (if in fact I was experiencing a stress reaction in my foot), so I decided to run my July 4^th 10K just for fun.

Why have I not run more races just for fun?!? That is the question I’ve been asking myself since Thursday. Rather than give you a minute-by-minute race recap, I’m going to share 10 of the most memorable moments from running the race for fun.

You know you’re running the Peachtree Road Race just for fun when …

10. Your pre-race meal is anything you can find at the Atlanta Braves game. Mr. rUnladylike and I went to the Braves game with my best running friend Tammy and her family the night before the race. Luckily, we were able to find something other than hot dogs and hamburgers. Tammy and I split a plate of chicken pasta with veggies and went to bed around midnight after the game and fireworks show.

9. On race morning, you’re more worried about getting into a porta-potty than into your starting corral on time. Until I can poop on race morning, I really can’t think about anything else. About 15 minutes before the race start, Tammy and I found a porta-potty and waited in line. The race started while we were still in line. After a successful porta-potty stop, we jogged to our corral and got there about 30-seconds before we were released to start.

8. You chat with your running buddies the entire race. Tammy and I met up with her friend Tricia, and the 3 of us chatted during the entire race. It was more like a Saturday morning training run than a race.

7. You completely ignore running tangents. Race courses are measured by the shortest distance from start to finish (the tangents). Typically, I try to run the tangents as best as I possibly can to ensure I don’t run longer than the race distance. We ran on the left side of the road for most of the race, with almost no regard for the tangents. Is it any surprise my watch said 6.32 miles instead of 6.2 at the end of the race?

6. You dump cup after cup of water on your head instead of drinking any. It rained the night before the race and was threatening to rain all morning. The humidity was thick, and I was hot! At 3 of the water stops, I dumped water on my head. I don’t think I got any in my mouth.

5. You slow down when your friends want to. In most races, when a friend(s) and I decide to run together, we have an unspoken rule that if one of us is feeling better than the other(s), we can take off and run our own race. But when you’re just running for fun, you can slow down when one person wants to. Throughout the race, we pulled back when someone wanted to and still kept chatting away.

4. You can dress up in a running “costume.” I’m not one for running costumes, but when you’re running for fun, you can wear things you might not normally wear in a race you’re more serious about. I wore a fun, patriotic outfit with more layers than I’d typically wear during a goal race. There were lots of other people in costumes – from guys wearing balloon wings, women in tutus and men dressed up like Uncle Sam.

3. You’re reminded that whether you race for time or just for fun, you are incredibly blessed and should never take it for granted for a second. During the fourth mile, also known as Cardiac Hill, the course passes the Shepherd Center – one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in the nation that specializes in treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord or brain injuries. Many of the patients who are in wheel chairs line the street and cheer and wave at all of us runners. I have never been able to run by this spot in the race without tears welling in my eyes. When we complain about anything – the pain we feel running up Cardiac Hill or “hitting the wall” – we must always remember that we are so fortunate to simply be able to run, no matter how fast or slow we might be going.

2. You run so slow in the beginning that you’re guaranteed to have a negative split. We started our first mile at an 8:58 pace, and my last mile was 7:56, with the final 0.32 at a 6:55 pace.

1. You’re not disappointed in a slow time. I crossed the finish line in 53:57 (which is slow for me, although I know it might not be slow for others). I felt happy and fulfilled with the race despite the slow overall time, and most of all, I had fun with some great running ladies.

Did you run on the Fourth of July? Do you ever run races just for fun? Why or why not?