Tri-State Tales Tinged by Patis

Race day came. Consie was there, as I am so blessed to have.
Faith drove in from Queens to lend support as well. I had trained; I had been
able to do a 37-minute 5k in the park. Nothing earth shattering, but decent, in
my eyes.

Put on the comfortable Dri-fit training shirt. Had the
stability shoes to check over -pronation. Ate the recommended breakfast.
Registered, got my race packet, had the shiny number and timing chip on my
foot, like I was doing it for real.

The morning blurred by. Saw the milling runners near the
starting area, went straight there after the third restroom break. (Don’t want
a pee break to add to my already very amateurish time, eh?)

Suddenly, the MC yells “ Go! “

And so off I went.

Mile One: went easy,
watching myself from getting sucked in the vortex of first minute rush just to
fade in the end. Fought it off, stayed at 70% MHR.

Mile Two: Got into a fair-spirited game of one-upmanship
with Guy In Orange Shirt. Think I beat him by end of this mile, ran best pace
of my life at 11/minute mile.

Mile Three: Woohoo! Almost done! 0.02 miles and I can rest
easy!

Mile Unknown: Um, its has been 45 minutes and nobody is
stopping. This is the longest 5k/3.1 mile race I have ever been in!

Mile Unknown: ten minutes later: Worked up the nerve to ask
a fellow runner what race this was. The response? “ Oh, this is the Half-Marathon,
honey! “

Yikes! I thought to myself; 13.1 miles! The best I ever ran
was 4 miles, I could not do this! But hey, still running, nothing hurts,
nowhere to stop anyway … Maybe …

Mile Seven, one hour later: Oh, no problem, I really can do
this!

Mile Seven, one hour and fifteen minutes later: Ow.

Mile Nine: Ow.Ow.Ow.

Mile Ten: OW. OW. OW. But as a fellow racer put it “ Now, you
can run the 5k! “

Mile Twelve: Running on stubbornness and gritted teeth.

Mile Thirteen: Two hours, fourteen minutes, ten seconds. No
training, minimal breakfast, with shoes, water, sports drink and adrenaline I
finish. I feel ecstatic and so happy,
and I feel no pain! I did it! An unscheduled half marathon! I did it! And I am
not dead last! There I am. Finisher 712, Racer Number 927. And I still can not stop smiling.

Running has officially got me.

Epilogue: 33 Hours Later

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

But you know what? Its still so worth it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 11:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.