Running Shoes by Josiah Mackenzie, on Flickr

My friend Sarah convinced me to run the Rockville Rotary Twilight 8K by uttering the following, “My friend says there’s beer at the end.”

How can a Girl on Beer say no to that?

And, in case this Girl on Beer did decide to refuse, the follow-up: “You think 5 miles sounds bad? You’re going to have to run a lot farther than that during the Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon.”

So, fueled by shame and the desire for free beer, I signed up, convinced the race would help me prepare for the half marathon (gulp) I’m planning to run in September.

But as race day drew closer, I started to have doubts. It’s July and it’s super-hot, and I’ve been a bit of a slacker recently, opting for indoor runs on the treadmill. What if I die of heat exhaustion? The website says there is danger of heat-related injury or even death! Hot Hot Heat is more than a band! WHAT AM I THINKING?

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. In fact, it was kind of fun. I had exactly two goals. The primary: Not to go DFL (as we used to call it when I was a competitive swimmer). The secondary: To slog through those nearly 5 sweaty miles in less than an hour.

I met both of them, despite taking more than a few walk breaks to deal with the summer heat. My official time was nothing to write home about, but I didn’t embarrass myself. So this Girl on Beer, who hasn’t run a race in at least five years and is really more of a swimmer anyway, feels like a winner.

More than 2,000 people ran the race, which benefited the Rockville Recreation fund, which allows low-income families to use the city’s recreational facilities. The course, which ran through the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods, as well as through Montgomery College’s Rockville campus, was hilly. And some of those hills were gradual inclines that seemed to go on FOREVER.

The course was challenging–Mile 1′s relatively flat surface quickly gave way to a couple rolling hills and Mile 2 did the same thing since we did a loop. Obstacles like speed humps were difficult to see in the dark. Mile 3–damn Mile 3–was nothing but a gradual incline, a quad-consuming monster. But it was literally all downhill from there in Mile 4. The spectators were fantastic cheerleaders (I had forgotten what a boost it can be to hear people cheering for you) and the volunteers distributing water and directing runners toward sprinklers and showers along the course were a godsend.

Post-race, there was free Michelob Ultra (95 calories a pop) for runners, which, after I’d rehydrated, tasted like the best beer in the history of beers. There was also plenty of free food and live music by Lloyd Dobler Effect, one of my favorite local bands.

My husband, Sarah and I capped off the evening at Buffalo Wild Wings, where I’m fairly sure we negated every calorie we burned during the race. But it was well worth it.