Sunday at the last minute I decided to sign up for our local half marathon. It’s less than 1/2 a mile from my house and I needed to test the waters for my long run. I figured I’d run at a decent pace but not go all out because I didn’t want to get hurt. I just wanted to gauge my fitness or lack thereof since my knee debacle. I took pretty much 7 days of from anything . Ok well not Makers Mark Manhattans but whatev. I missed two or one 20 milers but #whatyagonnado.
Morning of the race I did a warm up mile then lined up…gulp…in the front. I’ve never been ballsy enough to do that. But my babysitters were there and it seemed like the thing to do.
You can see which one is not like the others AND I felt slightly self conscience but that’s a ME problem 😉
Gun went off and there we go. I estimated there were probably 10 women in front of me (it was a small race). The first few miles were 7 something and I forced myself to slow down. I also made a deal I would only look at my Garmin for mile splits. I felt…great, would be the wrong word but I definitely felt decent. There were 4 main girls in front of me and at about mile 5 I made up my mind that my main goal would be to pass them and stay pass them. The motivation was to try to be a little more competitive. Especially the one girl who looked my age. The miles passed and I passed them all except her until I did. And holy hell it felt great!!
I came home with a new pr 1:45 on a fairly hardish course.
4th place overall female
And
2nd place in the 30-39 age group.
I never win shit! But…oh I so did!
And a wine glass too. Really couldn’t be more appropriate.
*my babysitters came in 1st and 2nd overrall and a kick ass 55year old spanked my ass…that’s ok. Good for them!
Have you ever won any thing from a race? Maybe even a lotto ticket? Any thing?
Fueled by Spite 
Congrats on the big race!!!! I’ve won some seriously random stuff – a mason jar, a raffle ticket, once I won nothing but satisfaction, but it wasn’t very satisfying.
hello! thank you for the comment on my blog. what’s so funny is yesterday before my run i asked my husband to hand me a pair of gloves and he handed me the ones that they gave us in our bags at CIM. i’m not kidding when i tell you i SCREAMED outloud! hahaha. oof. that was such a non-fun day. i sat in a hot bath with my race kit still on for 2 hours trying to warm up afterwards.
i was looking at your past races and it’s funny because we’ve run a lot of the SAME marathons! my first marathon was portland marathon 2011, CIM 2012.. i’ve also run eugene as well, but in 2013! eugene aka: death by bike path. LOL!
anyways, congrats on your 1/2! i think jumping in races at the last minute is fun because you don’t have time to psych yourself out.
i’ve won a few things… gift cards to a running store.. a mug… one time.. I WON A ROCK! okay, it’s more like a mini boulder.. i use it to prop my bathroom door open. 🙂