Saturday, December 3, 2011

My WA 5K experience!

So I MADE IT! Of course, I knew I'd finish. I struggled a bit during this 5K, but I made it in just over 36 minutes. For some reason, I always run TOO FAST and furious out of the gate. I guess because at that point it's fun darting in and out of the crowd, trying to get a better position in the crowd. I didn't get to cross the starting line until 22 seconds into the race, and I'm sure it would have been longer than that if I didn't use my excitement.

How did it go? Eh, my shoes came untied about 1/2 a mile in. That cost me time. It was 40 degrees (w/o accounting for the wind chill of being on the waterfront), which is COLD on your lungs. I ended up waiting around about 2.5 hours until the race (I thought it was earilier). I had a lot of pain in the right middle toe (nothing too new for me, but because I burned rubber out of the gate, it was severely aggrivated by the time I hit 1/2 way), AND a wrinkle in my sock caused my left foot to get a nasty blister on the arch.

Also there was no cheering squad to help us along, or talkative, encouraging strangers on the course... and this races idea of a water stop was COLD water (on an already COLD day) and sugar cookies?! Go figure. I skipped it.

Oh, and there was no photographers on the course... so I have no pictures of me. The local newspaper was there, though. And they snapped this one of me pre-race - It's like Where's Waldo though! I'll give you a hint. See the little kid with a green 1 on his shirt in the middle? See the lady in grey behind the kid? I'm behind her - see my fuzzy blue Stitch eared Santa Hat? That's me. Sneaky, aren't I? Anyway, here is the link to the article. But here I am on my way to the race!

Did I mention I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before? Too excited to sleep. I must be OUT OF MY MIND! Too excited to RUN?!
My uniform for this race was a pair of work out pants I'd worn before, a thin waffle knit pick long sleeve shirt, and my "I Heart A Sailor" t-shirt. On my shirt, I had my number on the front, and a sign I made that said "Runnin' Til Homecoming."

Here was my Magical Moment - About 1/2 way through everything seemed to be going wrong and the "stinkin' thinkin'" all racers are familiar with was getting the better of me. I must have looked it, because a couple of girls encouraged me while passing me. They were complete strangers and called me "Runnin' Til Homecoming"... and at that moment I remembered all My Sailor had been through (and all he was going through - not seeing the sun for months, tight quarters, lack of personal freedoms so we can call our December holiday whatever we want to in safety, all he WENT through in boot camp...) and  I picked up my pace considerably. I thanked them and said, "You're right. No matter how much I hurt, he probably hurts worse." Thanks to that one simple boost, I was able to tap into that deep place and get really moving again.

I finished a few minutes ahead of my saviors, but, like my very first triathlon - and that stranger that had seen me through that 5k - I never caught their names - but I owe my decent finishing time to them.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations! 36 minutes is a long time to run so I am super proud of you for going that long! Too cute in the Stitch hat! Think of the freedom you have- S can't run around right now, and here you got to do it! And you passed up sugar cookies?! he's majorly jealous right now. I can feel it.

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  2. Congratulations! You're a woman warrior. :)

    P.S. I think your J.Darling Music email account got hacked. I got a suspicious email from "you" that I didn't fully open. Just FYI.

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  3. Good for you, J. And I love your Stitch hat!

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  4. YEAH - Congratulations!!!! There's nothing wrong with that finishing time at all, especially with some of the issues you were having.

    Hey - it was colder here in AZ this morning. I started at 37 degrees :)...That's a little crazy huh?

    Love the hat - too cute!

    Aren't running strangers the best. I had a few of those out on the course today too. It always helps!

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  5. Thanks all! Forgot to mention, that monthly visitor felt the need to accompany me on the race as of that morning too. So all things considered, I'm pretty proud! Carly - thanks for the heads up on the hacking! I changed the password, so hopefully that'll do the trick. : )

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