I tried to go to bed early on Friday night. I wanted to be fresh and ready to run, not tired and worn out. I slept restlessly though. I had dreams. Weirdly enough I 'think' they were dreams about running. I woke up before the alarm and laid in bed and relaxed a bit, doing my normal (and favorite) wake up routine. When my alarm went off I rolled out of bed and got ready for my day. I was excited. I had vowed a lot of things through the last few weeks of this running training. I had vowed to run the whole thing. I had vowed to beat my turkey trot numbers. I had vowed to do this and that. Finally just this last week I changed my vow to "Do my best and have fun!" Sherry and I met up early and arrived at the race site. We were ready! Of course we stopped and had to have our pictures taken with the Sweet Frogs! (and yes, I will be using the 10% off coupon to get some frozen yogurt at one of the sweet frogs stores!)
We got out timer chips and we walked around for about 45 minutes, making sure that we visited the portapotties and kept moving. We watched (from a distance) the kids run. Some of those kids were like lightening! Finally it was our turn to congregate at the start line. We moved into place...and then we waited....and waited....and waited. OK, so it was maybe only 5 or 10 minutes. Finally after hearing the instructions for the race a few times (they were running two different courses of 5K and one course of a 10 k simultaneously so they had to make sure everyone knew which routes to follow) we were off. Sherry and I headed out onto the road. It was a road that we run each week but it felt so odd to be running on the middle of the road and surrounded by tons of people!.
About this time I realized that my research was wrong and we were running the FITNESS course and not the FUN 5k course! OOPS!
Within the first few minutes of running my breathing was labored. Really? I thought I had that under control???? Sherry even noticed it. Before I said anything to her (I was trying to get it under control on my own without bringing it up) she started counting my breaths for me out loud. She knows my breathing pattern that I am following (3-2-3-2-3-2). I tried. I really tried. But it just wasn't happening. We had to stop and walk relatively early. GRRRRR. We walked about a minute and then picked back up on the running. My breathing was still messed up. We ran and walked alternately for about the first mile. Then something happened and my breathing somehow settled down. At about the one mile mark I heard someone coming up behind us. It was a lone girl...she was running at about the pace that we ran at. We stayed relatively close to her. We would walk and she would pass us. She would walk and we would pass her.
At about the 2 mile mark Sherry started to feel sick. I didn't have any complaints about walking. My breathing was somewhat under control, but seriously...once it's out of whack my whole body does not function correctly. We walked and jogged intermittently the rest of the race. Our bodies fought us but we persevered. I was so happy that I was with her. Her presence helped pull me through. And yes....we crossed the finish line with smiles on our faces (or maybe they were grimaces!)
We did it! We did not run the whole thing...but we DID manage to beat my turkey trot time. By a few minutes! We also DID manage to have fun! This was a nice small race. The turkey trot was huge in comparison. This one was small an intimate. I liked it. If I'm running next year....this one will definitely be on my list. (although I my chose the FUN course next year....but then again, I may be READY for the fitness course!)
This morning I woke up and just felt sick and utterly exhausted. So I went back to bed and slept for a few hours. Exercise was put on the back burner. I may do something tonight. But I'm not pushing it. My body is telling me to slow down. I WILL listen to my bodies needs!
