Approaching the venue, I was not nervous, a weird calm was over me as I just came to do what I had to do - run. "Chariots of Fire" and "Eye of the Tiger" were playing in the background. The air was chilly, well cold for September. And thank god for port-a-johns, the line for the bathroom was thirty deep inside the gymnasium. Then "The National Anthem" played, it always makes me get a lump in my throat, I knew it was almost time to start.
The start was very frustrating as I had to walk for about two minutes because the congestion of the start was incredible. I had to start passing on the grass, after a while though the runners and walkers began to spread out, so the crowding lessened and I could actually catch my rhythm. Mile one, mile two, mile three and the last stretch I hear go, go, go, it was my biggest fan, Nik waving me to the home stretch. I could hear him but I could not look at him because I just wanted to stop running. I had just finished the woods and dirt part of the course on my tip toes, so there was no "go, go, go" left.
As I crossed the line I saw 36 and some odd minutes on a timer and to me I was perfectly fine with that time. The Fitness Challenge Course was hard, I was thankful for those blasted Haig's Creek hills. However I was looking at the wrong timer, there was a 15K going on simultaneously and that was the clock for those runners. I had finished in under 30 minutes.
In my first race, which was a month ago, after only being back to running for a week, I finished it in 32 minutes and some seconds. The course was mostly flat at the first race. My second race, I finished 31 out of 116 in females and completed the course in 29 minutes. I placed 6th in my division!! I need to explain the course - all hills and part was through the freaking woods on sand, not smoothed out. I am so glad that it was not my first race because honestly I would not have done any more, seriously.
Next race, Saturday, September 26...
No comments:
Post a Comment