Race Day

Yesterday I thought that I would skip it. I wasn't sure last night. This morning I woke up and looked at the start time on the race notice and decided, well, I paid for it, I signed up for it, but what really made me go for it was a note that mentioned that the first 600 participants receive a race medal. That little token sucked me in. I thought that would be a nice addition to last year's medal on my gym key ring. My hesitation to race today was based on the fact that I hadn't run since Monday. I have been running all year long and it is getting harder to force myself to go to the gym after work now. But I had been training up until recently to get faster, and so I just didn't want all that time in the gym to go for not if I didn't race today. I didn't have great expectations since I thought that I would get winded easily, since I had not run since Monday.

The nice thing about today's race is that they provide a trainer to give a stretch workout before the race. So I warmed up at the workout and then ran around for the next twenty minutes to get loose. Then race time came and I positioned myself near the front of the line, since at the 4th of July run I got bogged down by all the kids and strollers in front of me at the start of the race. The horn sounded and the race was off.

I started passing teenagers and young kids which gave me a sense that maybe I could do well today. Then half way through the race a woman ran right next to me with white hair. I looked at her bib and she was in my same age division. So I pushed it harder. I made some headway in front of her and then she gained on me, then I pushed ahead and then she again surged. I really pushed it in the last 400 meters seeing the finish line ahead but about 10 feet from the finish line she surged ahead of me. I thought to myself that I had tried to stay ahead of her for this race and I wasn't going to let her beat me at the end so I dialed it up for the last 5 feet and beat her at the line by .5 of a second.

I came in first for my age division for the second year in a row for this race. My time was quite a bit faster than last year only because that other woman was neck and neck with me. She pushed me to really give it everything I had. It felt good to come in first after putting it all out there. I would have been so disappointed if I had come up short at the finish line. But it turned out in my favor and I'm glad that I decided to participate today after all. The blue ribbon went up on the wall in my sewing room with the rest of my race ribbons when I got home.

At my age it feels good to accomplish a physical goal, when I have never considered myself to be athletic in the least. Maybe just maybe my genes contributed slightly to make my daughter the state track star that she is. This is the fifth race I have entered in a row where I have come in first in my age division. Time to dance a little jig for this old lady.