Saturday, October 26, 2013

I hit my wall and kept going – Lakefront Discovery 15k



 Runners never quit and quitters never run.  This is very true – especially for my race today.  I woke up around 7:00 a.m.  The race didn’t start until 9 and was only a quick drive so I woke up and had a little coffee and water, and took a shower to wake up my muscles.  I put on my pink crayon costume, checked my bag, and was ready to go.  We got to the race and met up with our friends, and walked over to the start line.  We took pictures, and looked around at other costumes.  The race started pretty quickly and I really tried to start at pace, but ended up going too fast.  I really struggle with this.  I start out really fast and then realize around mile 3 that I needed to ease up if I was going to finish.  The course was beautiful, right along the lake and through lake park.  I was feeling pretty good.  When I hit mile marker five, I looked out over the water and saw the sun shining and smiled because it was such a beautiful day.  As I was smiling and looking at the water, I wasn’t really looking at the course ahead of me…and fell flat on my face.  This is the first time I’ve fallen during a race.  I cracked my knee pretty hard on the sidewalk and spent about five minutes crying on the side of the trail.  A lot of people asked me if I was okay.  I took a few deep breaths and realized that I was more humiliated than injured.  It took a lot for me to get back up and go.  Runners never quit, and quitters never run.  I repeated that to myself at least a thousand times in the 4.5 miles after my fall.  I was really sore and humiliated for the rest of the race.  I walked around mile 9 because my knee felt like it was about to give out.  With .3 left to go, I turned on whatever I had left and crossed the finish line.  My time wasn’t very good, and I had tears in my eyes the last .1 miles of the race but I finished.  When you’re me, that’s a big accomplishment.

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