Run, Forrest, Run!

What a fulfilling weekend.  The Iron Mom half marathon was Saturday, and I finished it.  I wasn't the fastest kid on the block, but I wasn't the slowest either.  Definitely back of the pack, but  I did okay, which was a dadgum miracle.  You see, I didn't get to train at all in May.  We were supposed to have the race on Mother's Day weekend.  Get it?  Iron Mom?  And then our community flooded, and all of the barricades they needed were in use on flooded roads and people were struggling.  And part of the Greenway Trail they planned to use for the race was washed out.  So they bumped it to Father's Day weekend, which immediately made me groan.  First of all, June in western Kentucky is often hot and extremely humid.  Secondly, I knew my training time in May would be very limited with our trip to New York and all of Teen Angel's graduation festivities.  You can count on one hand the number of times I ran in May, and when I tried to run it was in the upper 90's, which meant long runs were impossible unless I wanted to get up at 3:30am, and THAT was not happening.  Long story short, I was very ready in May but not ready at all in June.  But daddy always said to finish what ya' start, and bailing just isn't within this stubborn body, so I ran about five miles last Tuesday and had a little talk with myself, getting myself in the right frame of mind.  I decided to grit it out, run the race, walk a little if I needed to and just do the best I could.

 

It's been hot here, and I was extremely worried about the heat yesterday morning and had Hubby stationed at four stops along the route with Smart Water and Gatorade in case the race organizers had not planned well enough for the 800 people registered.  In the end, the heat wasn't an issue.  It started out very humid but then lightly rained on us throughout the thirteen miles (thank you, Jesus!) and actually came a downpour not too long after I crossed the finish line.  I wouldn't have gotten too wet except I waited to run the last block with a couple of friends who were behind me, like the lady in the middle of this picture.  She's my neighbor  and goes to my church.  M.'s been thumbing her nose at her numerical age for years, and I just love her.  She wanted to run her first half marathon this year and started training with the lady on the left, P., who is relatively new to running and goes to my church, too.  

They ran together most of the race in the same vicinity as me, and we saw each other throughout the race.  It was a wonderful inspiration to me to see them reach their goal.  I consider it a privilege to know these ladies and to go to church with them.  It is folks like that who keep me reaching for new goals.

   

I'd like to run the race again next year, and hopefully, my training will work out better.  I'd like to be faster and stronger next year.  Much faster.  I could have shaved a good fifteen minutes off my time if I'd trained well in May.  I want to, as the race organizers said in their materials.....Run Like a Mother!