Sunday, March 30. A 7 am wake up call. A 35 degree forecast with some cold Chicago wind. Standing in line waiting for the race to start for an hour and 15 minutes in little clothing. And extremely nervous and excited for my first race.
When I finally made it past the starting line (there were almost 23,000) runners, I felt good and a surge of adrenaline. I decided to pace myself and ran the first mile in 10 minutes and 38 seconds. A good start. I was feeling pretty good and didn't want to burn out, so I kept the same type of pace for miles 2 and 3, and finished those in 10:37 and 10:35. Very consistent and fractionally improving. In mile 4, goals started to flash in my head and I wanted to finish the 5 mile race in under 50 minutes. So I did the math and had to cut more than a minute and a half from my last two miles.
Still feeling good, I picked up the pace. Mile 4 was 9:45. Faster by 45 seconds, but that meant I really had to push on the last mile. So I did. I started going faster. And I think I would've been ok but there was a bridge right before the finish and it tired me out. Last mile in 9:15. Total time officially was 50 minutes and 52 seconds. It did beat my personal best from the last two months of training by 6 minutes. So I was very proud and happy. It is an exhilarating feeling to cross the finish line. It was awesome.
What is really important about today though was that I started to cry when I crossed the finish line. Out of happiness. For finishing the race, going faster as the race went along, and also doing something that scared me a little. But most of all because if you go back, the first entry in this blog was me signing up for this race. That was over two months ago, and the tears and the joy came from knowing how much progress I've made in that time. Some of you know the full extent of my progress and some of you know through reading the blog that I've been doing better and better. But only I really know how far I've come and how good I feel. And it all started with forcing myself to move forward and take chances and try new things.
I am proud today. I am moved. I am emotional and I am happy inside. Good things are happening to me and will continue to happen to me. Life is great. And today's finish represented an initial coming full circle for me in this first part of my 180 days. It won't stop and I'll continue to keep trying new things, no worries. But today was special and important and had deep meaning to me. Thanks for believing in me and helping me everyone. I love you all and wish you peace and happiness and joy.
And by the way, I finished in 14,600th place among almost 23,000 runners. Not bad. Next year will be better still!
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