Corrie's Stories: The Best Weekend Ever

Joy and I put ourselves right in the middle of the crowd of runners and then, without any warning, the gun went off and away we went! The course was kind of weird because, while the majority of the course had us running north we started out going south and then turned around in the middle of the road to head north. It was strange, but ended up working well for me, because my Garmin watch died in that first little bit and I was able to throw it to my family so it wasn't this annoying, wrist-suffocating thing driving me crazy and not helping the whole time.

We started off pretty fast. Not super fast like at the head of the pack, but faster than the pace we knew we wanted to keep. But eventually the crowds thinned out and we could pick our pace. It's really hard to run the pace you want to in a big crowd! Sooner or later, though, things got less crowded and we normalized. Man, guys, it was so crazy hot outside! I knew it was going to be hot, but it was really rough running in that heat! The shade we occasionally received was a welcome blessing, and before you knew it, we were coming up on someone holding a sign. One mile! That was awesome! We did that so fast! We rock! Only two left! Oh...dang... that's one kilometer. Who the heck puts up a one kilometer sign? We live in America, people! even if we are running a 5k, couldn't you save paper and just put up one, two, and three mile signs? Dang you! Kind of disheartening, but it gave our minds a nice distraction of trying to convert kilometers into miles in our heads while we ran. It probably should have taken us less time than it did, but at least we figured it out before the 2 kilometer sign!

The water stations were amusing for me, as I didn't know how to drink cold water out of a cup while running. None of the water got in my mouth the first time around, just up my nose and all over my face. I would have just poured it on my head, but I was afraid of messing up my iPod. The second water station was better, but not much. I never did get the hang of drinking water from a cup. The second water station was also a huge obstacle for us to overcome, because coming up on it, it looked like it would be the turn around point, marking that we had run half of the race. Sadly, it was much MUCH further away. That was a big disappointment, and I had a hard time pushing through that one. For me, so much of the battle of running is mental, and my brain did not like being tricked. It threw a little tantrum for a few minutes, but then I got over it.

The people who were helping out with the race were very encouraging, and I appreciated that. Every couple of minutes there would be someone standing on the side of the road saying, “Let’s go, guys, you’re doing great! Almost there! You're halfway there!” That was nice. I didn’t really pay that much attention to them, but it was like background music to the background music I was already listening to on my iPod. Speaking of my background music, I honestly only remember one song that played on my iPod through that race, and I only recognized it at the very end. Usually I can give you an entire setlist at the end of a run. The one song I recognized and remembered was Single by Natasha Bedingfield. A great song for those who actually are single and fine with it. Sadly, I was so over-stimulated by everything that was going on and all the newness of the race that I totally missed out on jamming to my favorite she-power song.

There was no 3k sign, so the 4k sign was quite a welcome sight. I knew I could do it when I only had half a mile left. There was no reason or excuse to walk now. I gave it everything I had to push through to the end, and as I came over the last hill, I saw my sweet sweet family waiting and cheering for us. I’m sure they were saying really nice things, and I definitely looked at them and tried to smile as I passed them, but I didn’t really hear what they were saying. I was just focusing on the girl holding the white poster board that I couldn’t quite read. But surely it says Finish, right? It has to! Oh, dang it doesn’t. It says turn. AAAH! When does this stupid thing end! Stop psyching me out, Limbs for Life!

I turned right when the sign told me to and it took me down through a back-door entrance to a baseball field right onto the track that goes around it. But not before leading me past an eight-foot pile of manure. Good idea, guys. It’s 95 degrees outside with 95% humidity, but I’m sure that this giant pile of feces won’t bother people who have been running for the last half hour, gasping for every breath. Nah, they’ll be just fine running past a huge mountain of crap.

So I avoided this final obstacle, ran down the last stretch of the track and crossed the finish line. I couldn’t believe I had done it, but I had done it! I vaguely noticed my time and thought it was somewhere in the 36 ½ minute range. I was right about on, as I found out later it was 36:35, putting me in 97th place out of 200 women. Better than average, I’ll take that! Ok, again we’re getting a bit long so I’ll leave you with a few pictures and finish up this adventure (Could it get any more exciting? Oh yes, it can) tomorrow.

Joy and I before the race...