Stronger, faster than ever before!

From the lowest low, to the highest high… It seems so surreal that this morning started out so miserably. I mean, seriously – why in the world do races have to start when it’s dark out? Who wants to get up at 5:30 a.m.? Not this girl. But I did, just so I could get dressed and squeeze in a nebulizer treatment because my asthma decided to flare up yesterday. Yes asthma on top of my bronchitis – not a good way to head into a race.

Plus, did I mention how cold it was? A balmy 36 degrees this morning. That is not very warm when all you have on is running pants, a 3/4-sleeve running shirt, and a snazzy running jacket. Luckily, the shuttle bus didn’t take too long to pick us up and the lines for the Adult 5k (you, with the jokes, shoosh) were non-existent. That gave us plenty of time to find the Starbucks across the street and sardine ourselves in for warmth. Thank goodness the Fire Department hotties were looking the other way because I know that Starbucks was past maximum capacity. Crisanna and I stayed there for an hour (guess we can leave later next year), complaining about the early hour and the cold, until we decided it was time to find the start line.

Heh – there is a reason I don’t wing things people. I am bad at the winging. Because you know how most of the fun of races and big gatherings and whatnot is the people watching? Yeah, for a good part of this morning, we were the people-watchees, not the people-watchers. We got lost trying to find the start line. Twice. I think we walked a good mile, mile-and-a-half first trying to find Commerce Street and then just following random people with green numbers pinned to their shirts. Finally we found a gaggle of people who seemed to know where they were going…which was coincidentally the opposite direction from where we had been headed.

Once we got going though – ohmygosh, what a rush! It took me a minute, but I found my pace and kept it pretty consistently, I think. It was much harder in the beginning because there were a bunch of kids running with us and lord were they insane. Thankfully, I have a built-in child-avoidance-system so I was able to nimbly dash around and jump out of the way in the nick of time. I did see one kid wipe out across the hood of a car…or kind of more like he clipped the fender and went sailing. I saw another kid panic when he thought he lost his family and that almost made me stop, but the parentals found him right away. But that was all at the start of the race and I kinda just lost everything after that. I was much too busy dodging people and keeping pace and figuring out who to pass and how to maneuver myself to think much about the running.

You know what was odd? Everyone told me I would be fine, that the adrenaline would kick in and I would surprise myself. And I did. I kept looking for mile markers, but didn’t see them, only it never seemed to bother me because I never felt any pain. I never felt fatigued. I was much too busy people-dodging and strategizing to get bored or think about where I was. There was that one tricky part where the race route takes you back towards the heart of downtown, right near the finish line, and I remember thinking that I shouldn’t get excited because I remembered the route having a fake-out: it twists out and away before looping you back. But I thought to myself that maybe I had just missed it since I hadn’t been paying attention. So I sped up and started passing people…only to find the course curving to the left just as I had remembered it. Ooops. But still I didn’t feel the burn and somehow had energy to go full out for the last quarter mile. I passed people left and right and felt wonderful (and rather muppet-ish) crossing the finish line at full speed.

It was the most awesome experience I’ve had in such a long time.

I am so happy proud of myself for making a plan and sticking to it. Despite the cold. Despite my health issues. I am a rock star, yo. And apparently everyone else recognizes that because Crisanna and I were stopped, randomly, to have our picture taken by…someone. It’s not very clear who. I even got flowers at…well, not the finish line, but close to it. AND, when we pulled in my driveway, a florist’s van pulled in behind me and I received a large and gorgeous bouquet of flowers from the very lovely Kathy! (THANK YOU, Kathy!!!)

All of you need to go sign up for races now, because you have got to get you some of this rock star feeling. It’s incredible!

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Tags: C25K, Exercise, running