My initial goal in January did not have a race in it at all. My goal was to lose weight, while continuing to drink craft beer. This race thing was a "nice" outcome of my training. I was pretty nervous before the race. I was glad only 150 had registered. It was a nice size group running through the neighborhoods of Westlake. I had picked up a Garmin Forerunner to track my training, but it was really helpful during the race, knowing what my pace was, how far I had gone. I had, of course gone out a bit fast, you know, all that adrenaline, but I felt good, and kept it up. Mile 1 and 2 went by rather easily, but then I got tired. I thought about walking a number of times, but I kept looking for people in front of me to target to catch up to. I remember Coach Roth (HS cross country coach) telling us to pull them in, like on a rope. 40 years later that's what I did, one by one until I could see the finish line.
When I was done, I looked at my watch - 24:05 - holy crap! I called Rose, I ate my banana, I drank my free beer (The best friggin' beer ever!) and I talked to some people I knew. I was exhausted, I had nothing left in me. I had a 45 minute drive home I had no idea how I was going to do :-) There were some issues with the official timing of the race, so they did not have the results after the race. Today they posted the official results and I finished 2nd in my age group and finished 23rd overall. The chip results from the race had me at 24:09, I'll take it!
I plan to run in a couple of more races this summer. I'm not sure I can replicate this accomplishment, but I know that it's all about the PR, bettering yourself each time you go out, so here's to a 24:00 in my next race!
