Running Down a Dream

This past Saturday was the 7th Annual IMC 5K Race down in Homeland, about 20 minutes south of Lakeland. I had never even heard of this race before, however, my friend Michelle who ran the race with me, has competed the last three years. And I do mean compete. This was a true Cross Country race. I thought people used that phrase just to denote a long distance, not actually running through the "country". But this race was on a trail out in the middle of a giant field of 5 foot grass. It was sandy, uneven, full of holes, wet from the dew of the morning, and as the race was underway; HOT. I started strong but about the mile mark the phrase, "I'm dead" seemed to repeat in time with my steps. And even worse, as I ran up the beginning of a long switchback, the many runners ahead of me who were coming out of the switchback were all at least 20 years older than me!! A truly discouraging scene. So I just put my head down, and decided I had to finish and whatever happened to just keep going. I looked behind me to see my closest competitor. It was a man about 60. All I could think was I CAN NOT let THAT guy beat me! So as long as he was about 100 yards behind me, I was good. Plus, Michelle had brought her husband, kids, mother-in-law and two other friends from our ward as a cheering section and I could not look like a total running doofus in front of them. So when I hit that last turn and came up on to the hill and heard them all cheering, I ran like the wind. It was a nice feeling. Overall I placed 19th out of 29 people and ran 3.1 miles in 33 minutes, something I still am astounded I can even say. As you may have calculated, this race was not exactly a packed house, so yes, I did get a trophy. Second place in my age division- with 1st place going to Michelle (she finished 2nd overall). I felt like a little kid again, going to my parent's house and showing them the trophy and having them gush about how proud of me they were. Cindy has since commandeered the trophy, named her Lisa, and broken her left running shoe, but still I am glad to have the trophy and the experience. The tri is going to be so much harder than I realized! But if new experiences are supposed to push us, I am being shoved!