Race, what race? I'm not running any races.
My dear daughter's cross country coach strongly encouraged me to sign up for our big local four mile race The Steamboat Classic. Four miles, now I had run four miles but this, this was an actual race with people that ran, probably ran a lot more than I did. I had been part of this spectacle before, merely as a spectator though, as my husband had ran both the four miler and the 15K, for those crazy souls that four miles just didn't seem far enough.
So I did it, I signed up for a race!!!!
I didn't really train for this because I had ran this distance so I was going in pretty confident around race day that I could do this no problem, and I wouldn't even finish last because they let walkers and children into the four miler as well.
So here it is, June 18th, I had been running for about 20 days and I was going to embark on my first race.
I didn't sleep well because race day jitters got the best of my active imagination and I was up hours before I even had to be at the location for the race start.With my family in tow, we headed down to the Peoria Riverfront for the race. We arrive and it's early, very early, like 6:00am. My kids of course are bored waiting around for this race start, I just want to start and get done and the hubs is trying to photograph it all.
They call the 10 minute warning and here is where it starts to get dicey for me. While I was standing in a pretty open area I am not quite for sure what happened but the people started coming in droves. Tons and tons of people, I don't even know where they all came from and they just kept coming. People all over the place, all around me on every side.
At this point panic had completely set in, I was being touched, my personal space was absolutely being violated, I was already breathing hard and sweating and the National Anthem hadn't even been played yet!!!
Little did I know it was about to get a whole lot worse!!!!
National Anthem was played, wheelchair start occurred, then the gun went off for the four miler. OH MY GOODNESS. People were rushing toward the start, I was being pressed up against other bodies and my body was being squished between others. I about lost all self control I was barely hanging onto. I didn't understand this breach of personal space that was going on. Their time didn't even start until they passed the mats at the start line, even I knew that.
I came up with what I thought would have been a great solution for myself: XANAX!!!!
After the stampede occurred and I passed the actual start my first mile was the fastest mile I had ever run, I had to put some distance between myself and all these other crazy, non-personal space respecters.
To this day, it is currently my fastest mile ever ran :)
After my nerves calmed down from all of that I started to enjoy the run, even the people on the run slightly as I had my space back.
I hit the turnaround point and even high-fived some of the other runners on the route.
Everything was going just peachy until about mile 3.25. That's when a hill came along. I had never ran a hill before and this one wasn't even a big hill but it still sucked. The good thing about going up a hill is that you get to go down a hill as a reward in most cases. This was the case. A great down hill finish with lots of cheering spectators, an announcer that butchers your last name and a beer truck ( I don't drink after I run but this is obviously an added bonus for many :)).Lessons learned: XANAX before race starts, do not start in the middle of the street, go to the side where I can breath, don't rush the first mile, and it's ok to enjoy the craziness of the community of people with whom you share a common bond.
Up next.... the time I completely lost my crap after a race I did with my beloved daughter :)
