Fitness Running Turned Into Race Training – My 15K

I love getting up before the kids in the mornings (and, before hubby leaves for work) to go running. The fresh air, the peace and quiet – it’s my preferred way to start the day.
One day a friend said to me, “You like to run. Have you ever thought of running a marathon? Because, I’ve decided to start training for one.”

Hmmmm ... run for a reason other than exercise and mental “cleansing?” I was intrigued – a challenge.
I like challenges.

The thought of 26.2 miles (a full marathon) seemed a little steep, however -- I was 39 years old, after all. I did some research and found a 15K (9.3miles) in my area scheduled in 2 months. The decision was made. I would start running with a new purpose in mind.

There are MANY sites out there with tips for training for marathon or shorter distance races. I had no idea. I’m not much of a “rule-follower,” so I took what I found interesting and helpful from the sites and left the rest. The main tip that I heeded was about taking walk breaks – before I felt like I needed one. All of the sites supported this – advising that it would help me maintain my pace throughout the duration of the race. A week before the race, I did a practice 15K. Aside from having to stop by my house for a “bathroom break,” it went pretty well. I felt I was ready.

So, on Day 60 of my training, it was time for my first official race!!

My morning started at 4:45am . . . oh, wait . . . I guess I could say it started at 1:30am when my daughter (age 6) woke up because she was coughing so much. I gave her some cough medicine and lay with her for an hour while we waited for the medicine to take effect and she slowly fell back to sleep. I crawled back into my bed at 2:30am and hoped I could fall back to sleep. I did.

Okay . . . back to 4:45am - the time my alarm went off. One of the first things I did upon waking was blow my nose (trust me, this is relevant to the story) and, for the first time in about 4 months, my nose started to bleed. Now, bloody noses have been a part of my life since I was a little kid (don’t get me started on how much school nurses DON’T know about treating nose bleeds!). But, since I’ve been older, they usually are most frequent only during the dry, winter months. Apparently, my nose decided to make an exception today (lucky me!). I got dressed in my “running clothes” (i.e., spandex shorts, t-shirt long enough to cover my tush in the spandex shorts and my 13 year old running shoes – each with a hole in it), gathered up all the stuff I had gotten ready the night before and headed out to the car (yup, nose is still bleeding).

It was a couple minutes after 5:00am when I left the house. It was a few minutes later when I arrived back at the house, ran inside, grabbed my Race Number, and dashed back out to the car.

Boy, surprising how light traffic is at 5:00 in the morning on Saturdays. And, yup — nose was still bleeding. I cranked up the air conditioner, put pressure on the bridge of my nose . . . but, nothing was working to stem the flow. This was, of course, adding some “tension” to my already excited state of body/mind. I decided to eat half a piece of bread to try to calm the two million butterflies that were having a party in my stomach.

I arrived at the race area around 5:45am. There were about 20-30 other cars there. Yup, I was early. Registration and “chip” pick-up were supposed to begin at 6:00am. Nothing was set up, yet. I decided these things must be kinda laid-back. Cool. Well, my nose was still bleeding (though, slowing down); I wanted to walk around and check things out; and that piece of bread had triggered a need to find a restroom. I grabbed a Kleenex, sniffled a lot (to keep from looking like some kind of B-rated horror movie character with blood running down my face), and headed out to explore -- well, to find a bathroom and THEN explore.

I soon discovered that the other cars in the parking lot belonged to the people setting things up and vendors. My nose FINALLY stopped bleeding (oh, and I found the bathroom). I’m really glad that I arrived so early. It gave me a chance to RELAX, walk around, watch the whole process of setting up for an event like this, and (my favorite part) People-Watch. I love watching people and, as the 2500 participants, various vendors, and spectators arrived, I had a wonderful opportunity to do A LOT of it.

There were folks who looked as lost as I was. There were folks in their fancy running clothes and iPods. There were some families (I felt SO sorry for the little tykes that were clearly still half asleep, but had been dragged out of bed nonetheless). There were folks who, you could tell, had done this many times before — they just had that air of “knowing.” And, of course, there was the one lady who had lots of make-up, her hair fixed (and up), and long dangly earrings. It takes all kinds!!

What I noticed the most was the atmosphere of the whole thing. Many folks were greeting each other like old, dear friends — there was such a feeling of camaraderie. It reminded me SO MUCH of being at the drop zone (a place to go skydiving, in case you didn’t know) on a brisk Saturday morning: There was palpable excitement in the air — some folks radiating a nervous, glowing kind of excitement and others radiating an expectant excitement of knowing what is to come. Everyone there knows that they are there to do something special — something that not everyone does . . . . knowing that most other people are still at home in their beds, but you have chosen to get up and come out to this special place and do this special thing. This amazing, wonderful and familiar feeling wrapped around me & filled me with a warm calmness.

With all my nervous excitement gone and only happy, joyful excitement remaining, I: leisurely reclined on the hood of my car, walked around some more, danced around in front of my car (Jack FM had a booth there and was blasting music), and smiled A LOT.

As the 7:30am start time neared, I headed down toward the Start Line — danced and smiled some more there. Slowly I gravitated on to the “track” and took a spot at the actual Start Line (after checking around first, of course, to see if we were supposed to gather in any sort of special order or if we just line up however we wanted to — it was the latter). The 2500 participants all started heading down the hill to the track. It was amazing to watch that long, seemingly endless mass of people descend toward me. Everyone was very polite and only a few seemed “pushy” to get close to the actual Start Line. I ended up being only about 5-7 feet back from the Line once all were in place. Apparently, in the past, they have started the 5K and 15K groups separately, but this year ALL the participants started at once. Let me tell you, that’s a lot of people.

“On Your Marks! Get Set! Go!”
Yes, the announcer actually said this.
And, BOOM everyone was moving. It was amazing!!
(Oh, to address my sister’s concerns — there was no trampling or tripping or dragging of any kind — in fact, no one ever even bumped into me or touched me in the slightest).

The first thing I noticed after we all started moving was that everyone was passing me. It was cracking me up!! I mean EVERYONE was passing me. I felt like I was going 45 in an 85mph zone! I checked my body/my pace — I felt like I was running my normal pace. It was just so funny!! Man, did I suck that bad? Well, apparently “everyone” just likes to start out REALLY fast, because as I hit the 1-mile mark and checked my stopwatch, I saw that I had done the first mile in my regular time of 8.33 minutes. And, don’t worry — it all came out in the wash at the end, as I was passing other folks who had finally slowed down.

What was my goal upon entering this race? Truthfully — just to finish it. I wasn’t out to beat my time from my trial-run last weekend. I wasn’t out to try to keep up with folks around me. I just wanted to do my best, cross the finish line, and enjoy the whole experience. I kept this goal in mind as I ran.

My thoughts as I was running:

I smiled a lot. As I did, I thought of my friend’s Running Blog in which she had said, “Every mile, with a smile.” You know, a smile can get you up even the steepest hills.

Any time I thought that maybe I should be running faster, I would think of something else my friend had said on her blog — “Go slow, we have time.” I wasn’t trying to win the race, I just wanted to have fun, do my best, and cross the finish line . . . . I had time.

And, what went through my mind the most was a conversation that my son (5 years old) and I had had the night before when I was putting him to bed: SON: “Good luck at your race tomorrow, Mommy. I hope you win.” ME: “Oh, I’m not going to win, Sweetie. I’m just going to do my best and have fun.” SON: “Oh, then, I hope you cross the finish line.” Yup, that was my goal.

I felt pretty comfortable throughout the race. I kept checking my pace and felt like I was on point with my usual stride. The only “issues” that arose were: 1) It was getting HOT. Who knew that there would be that much difference between running from 6 to 7am and running from 7:30 to 9am?! The temperature was definitely noticeable and did affect me to an extent; and, 2) Also, noticeable was my complete lack of a breakfast. I normally don’t eat before my morning runs, but am able to eat something by 7:30am when I’m done running. This morning, I had been concerned that eating something might trigger a need for a bathroom break in the middle of the run, so I chose not to eat anything. Around the 7th to 8th mile, I believe I was noticing this lack of “fuel.” I’ll have to figure something out for my future races. Other than those two issues, the race went off without a hitch.

Oh, I’ve got to mention the little “boost” I got near the end of the race (right at the last .3 mile). Coming up, on the right side of the path, I saw a father (okay, I assumed he was the father) and 4 little children — we’re talking baby to preschooler. The kids looked hot, tired, and bored. I smiled as I went passed them, thinking of my own little ones. Then, when I was about 10 paces past them, I hear these fabulous, joyful, fill-your-heart-with-happiness squeals: “MOMMY!!! MOMMY!!! Go, Mommy!!! Yea, Mommy!!!” I got goose-bumps and my smile about split my face. Those last 3/10ths of the race were the best.

I had planned on throwing my arms up when I crossed the finish line, but I forgot — I was busy looking for the water stand.

 I did a cool down walk, drank 4 cups of water, and headed back up the hill which was emanating sounds of a party. I only hung around for a little while — I was anxious to get back home to my own little ones. But, it was definitely a celebratory, party experience. I decided then and there that I definitely wanted to become a part of this running culture (and, it’s a lot cheaper than my previous hobby of skydiving).

 When I had been taking my cool-down walk after the race, another runner was walking toward me — doing his cool-down walk as well. He was an older man but, in great shape and clearly someone for whom this wasn’t a first race. Maybe it was my lack of an iPod and a fancy running skort. Maybe it was the holes in my 13 year old shoes. Somehow – he *knew.* I could see in his eyes that somehow he knew this was my first race. He smiled a wonderfully warm and genuine smile at me and said earnestly, “Good race.”

I returned his smile.

Yes. Yes, it was.