The race we said we wouldn't run again

The past two years, Brian and I have run this race and every year after finishing Brian says:

"We are NOT doing this race next year, it was too hot"

And every year, around May, Brian tells me we HAVE to sign up for this race and the cycle continues.

Except this year, it wasn't insanely hot and humid and the race was actually a really nice time.

I had a really busy day Friday.  Work in the AM, awards luncheon for work, wedding dress fitting at 2:30pm, then drive to Brian's parents, run the race at 7pm.  My stomach was a mess all day and I didn't know why.  I just felt out of whack and it could have been from being nervous about my fitting or just the stress of the week.

The dress fitting went unbelievably well - the dress fits great and all I need done is the bustle!  I was so nervous about the color.  Back in January I had tried on the dress in white but ordered my dress in ivory.  The women at the bridal shop assured me that the color would be fine but I was still nervous.

When I was all finished with that, I hit the road and headed to Brian's parents house.  While I waited around for the time when we would head to the race, I tried to relax but my stomach was still all tied up in knots.  Feeling that my stomach was not right made me even more nervous for the race.

Finally it was time to leave and head to pick up our packets.  A quick warm up later and I was standing with Brian at the start line.  With about 5 minutes to go, the gun went off!  I nearly had a heart attack.  They were just test firing the starting gun.

The course is pretty flat and I made sure not to start out too fast.  All these other girls were sprinting past me, but I held my pace back and just watched them go, hoping that I would catch up with them in the second mile.  My stomach was still in knots, but thankfully it was not affecting my pace too much.  I continued on to the second mile and slowly started passing a few people. At this point I could not wait to finish; as I made the final turn I saw the finish looming in the distance.  It was sooo far away and on a slight uphill.  I knew I was on track for a PR, but I wanted that sub 21 finish so badly.   I saw the seconds ticking away and as I crossed the finish I guessed that my time would be 21 minutes flat.

And I was right.  1 second from my goal.  I think if my stomach had not been such a mess from all the stress I would have run faster but my stomach and heart were just not in it.  It was a good race, thankfully not too hot and a good way to end my "spring" racing season.  I have decided that I will be taking the month of July off from all racing.  It will be nice to just focus on training and not worry about fitting in races.


Time: 21:00
Age group: 3/?? (no online official results posted yet)
Garmin splits/paces:
6:49
6:47
6:40
6:21 pace

Brian did well too even though he didn't train and doesn't know his time - but he said "he felt good" so that was a win! I guess we will be running this race next year after all!

Have a great Monday!