First Race

Yesterday I ran my very first race......well at least since elementary school when we had field day. I was never much of a runner. To be perfectly honest, I was never athletic. I always wanted to be good at tennis, but the whole hand-eye coordination seemed to work against me!

For the past couple of years I have talked about wanting to take up running, but never really did much about it. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that if I don't know what I'm doing I don't really want to do it for fear of looking like a complete loon.

I met an Irish guy at the park one day while I was walking around Tech Terrace. He was riding around the park on his bike encouraging people who were walking/running. Once he spoke I was immediately curious about him because I could tell he was Irish. You don't meet many people from Ireland around here! Jerry explained to me that he belonged to the West Texas Running Club, so I decided to pick his brain about running. He is a marathon runner, and runs mostly to set pace for other people in the running club. He took my email address down and emailed me a running program.

All summer I've been training and making headway. My goal has been the 12K (approx. 7 or so miles) Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. It has been such a fun process, one because I finally decided to put my money where my mouth was, and two it has given me an outlet to clear my head/pray/think etc.

So yesterday I ran a two mile race in Shallowater. The idea was for me to run with one of the other 4th grade teachers, Sandra Spruell. On Thursday, Sandra told me she was going to have to help with registration, but that I could run with her 11 yr old daughter, Lindsey. Well, Lindsey left me eating her dust at the starting line.

It was crazy when they sounded the horn to start the race. Everyone was running like mad, so I started off faster than I would have normally. I ran pretty hard the entire way, but people kept passing me.....like elderly men. When I say elderly, I mean 80+. I was convinced I was bringing up the rear until I got to the halfway turnaround and saw there were still several runners behind me. One guy kept passing me, and then I'd catch up to him as he was walking. Once I passed him, he would start running really hard to pass me. This happened at least four times.

Once I came across the finish line, I didn't wait around to check my stats. I was hoping to make it to ladies bible study so I went ahead and left. Later in the day, Susan Wilcox told me I had around 9 minute miles. My best time in training was around 9:48 min/mile. Then Jerry emailed me to tell me great job, making me think my time had been posted. So I was curious, and decided to check my time on the running club website. My time was 8:58 miles! I had to laugh because I knew old men were passing me and my running partner left me and I started out too fast, and so on. Come to find out I came in 2nd in my age group.....out of four. HA!!! My overall ranking was 112 out of 164.

I guess there is always room for improvement, but I was really happy with my first run ever. I have a 10k/6.2mi run October 10. That should prove to be very challenging. I'm up to about 3 and 1/2 miles in my running plan. So I still have quite a way to go.

Tonight I'm off to run at Tech Terrace. Sundays I run with Jerry, and get coached on form, nutrition, and training. It's great to have the help and encouragement.

So thanks for all the kind words and prayers....keep 'em coming! I surely need all the help I can get.