I Did It!

I have been impatiently waiting to write about my most recent race experience ever since I posted this entry well over a month ago. What was the hold-up? Race photos! I have been waiting on race photos this whole time, and since they still haven’t posted them, I am out of luck. Oh well.

This was the best I have. A selfie I forced myself to snap minutes before the race began. Note the smile that doesn’t reach my eyes. Note the redness, the swelling.

My miserable face at the starting line.

Remember how I wrote that training had not been going well, and that all sorts of bad things had happened to derail me? A little over twelve hours before the race, my beloved dog suddenly died. It wasn’t unexpected – she was old and in poor health – but it happened out of the blue. She started having labored breathing and her body went limp around 6pm and she was dead an hour later. Devastation doesn’t even begin to describe the way I felt and continue to feel about it.

I knew running the race would be a good distraction, and I knew that she’d want me to run anyway. So I did my best to plaster a smile on my face and meet everyone with my tail wagging, just the way she would have done. And much like my half-marathon in 2019, having something horrible happen right before the race took my head out of it. I wasn’t able to worry and beat myself up the way I normally do. Subsequently, my performance was better than expected.

The original goal for this race was to complete it in under an hour. To refresh your memory, it was a 5-mile race, all downhill. I was doing run-walk intervals of 3:1. Imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner, saw the finish line and noticed the clock said 1:00! Much better than expected, given my lack of training!

Then I received a text with my official chip time: 59:40. I did it!

The death of my dog aside, it was a nice event and a great course. I would like to do it again next year. It also served its purpose of helping me to enjoy running again. I am currently looking to put a team together for a charity run in April. I know I won’t be running this winter, but having a race on my calendar will at least get me started in March and April.