i was up at 520. ate a bowl of oatmeal and a banana for breakfast, gathered the kids and loaded up into the yukon to drive to the race. all we needed to do at the race was to pick up our timing chips and warm up (and get over our nerves.)
i felt good. i stretched out my legs and did a little warm up jog with katie, no pain the whole time. i was excited to get to run again, and to be able to at least start out with katie for the first couple miles.
i prayed for us in the coral before the gun, for a pain free run with quick times. and God answers prayer.
a couple miles into the race, katie i and were hanging out at a 10:15/10:30 pace and feeling great. the temperature was good, fog blocked the hot sun, just a light breeze instead of a nasty headwind, and my leg felt fine- like it was never injured.
the aid stations were so nice to have, especially the farthest one out that was more than three miles from the one before. and it had skittles. i love skittles, but i have never enjoyed them as much as i did at 6.5 miles on saturday. except maybe at 10.5 miles. they were pretty great then too.
at ten miles, i let katie go on ahead. i wanted to turn it down a little, but kept her in my sight through the finish.
i was tired, but in good spirits at ten miles. i knew i could keep running. near 13 jason came and caught up with me to run the last bit, it was a nice surprise. when i knew the finish was close, i picked up the pace again. the finish is on the grass across the park from the path we ran on, and as soon as i hit the grass i sprinted in to the arch.
it felt good to speed up, and to know i would be finished in just seconds.
i did it. i ran all 13.1 miles. it was as if i had never been injured. but not only that, i did it much faster that i imagined i might be able to.
266th out of 339. 2:24:08, an 11 minute pace. fantastic.
and we all really did have a great time.
Awesome!! I'm so glad it went well for you! :D
ReplyDelete