I know, I know. I've been bad at updating. But it is summer time now, and I have less structure. Less running around playing mom-taxi, and more time to relax at home and catch up on my posting. So, let's go.
The
Independence Half & 5k is a new race in town, put on by good folks at
Bodies Health and Fitness. They started putting on races a few years back, mostly on the Missouri side of Kansas City. They are well put together, staffed, and generally go off without a hitch. Bodies has put together a year long series of 5 & 10ks, and if you run them all, your medals form together to make a dinner plate, or something really magical. And you get to race a lot, so all is good. I do believe that this race was their first jump into the longer distances like the half marathon. Being a new race, one is always leary if they will get it right, or if the kinks will get worked out for next year. I'm happy to say, Bodies got it right on the first try. This race was great!
The race start is about 55 minutes from my house and I wanted to make sure I had enough time to grab my packet and get comfortable. I left my house really early. Like, before the sun came up early. I arrived with plenty of time to grab my packet, hit the porta-potty, walk around, take a few selfies, say hello, and get to the start line. I introduced myself to the 2:05 pacers as my goal going into this race was anything below a 2:05 time. I would have been thrilled with 2:04:59. I just wanted to break that time.
Before the race rocking Run or Die by INKnBURN
With my friend Laura, who is rocking a Redline Singlet by INKnBURN
The gun went off, and we were off. I was just in front of the 2:05 pacers, and they just felt slow. Like dragging. So I moved up. I caught up with the 2:00 pacer and saw my friend Belinda from KC Express. We chatted for a bit, and agreed to run the race together. Run, but not chat, as both of us wanted to get certain times. We said we'd stay together until the mile 10 mark, and then she wanted to pull ahead and go. All of that was fine by me. I like running with company, but I wasn't in the mood to chat. I had my iPod and head phones in, and just wanted to melt into my head and go. Belinda told me that her watch hadn't started on time, and could I call out the mile times to her to make sure we were still on pace. That was no problem.
On we went, mile by mile. I'd let Belinda know the time, and back to our zones we went. And we were still with the trailing 2:00 pacer. At mile 7 I finally pulled my ear buds out and asked him if he was right on pace, off, on, what? He told me that he was right on, maybe even 10 seconds under. I quickly did some math in my head and figured out that I really could try to pull in a Sub2 time. WHAT? Sub2 was not on my radar. That is what fast people run. I'm not that fast. I'm just a mom, out for fun, trying to take it up a little notch.
Belinda and I kept at it. There was a small hill at 11.5, and I kept at it. Belinda got a cramp, and told me to go on. So I did. The down on that hill was great - I felt like I was flying. The rest of the race was flat which was nice. I came to the finish line, and found out that we actually had to run past the finish, turn around, and then finish. I understand the need as the race was a bit short on the distance, but it threw me for a second.
I came into the shoot so excited that I forgot to turn my watch off. So I walked aroundfor a few seconds before remembering. My watch read 2:00:19. I was thinking that I just may have pulled it off. With my shoe timing tag removed, I found the results table, and asked for my time. It felt like forever, but the woman found time time, and read it off. 2:00:03.9. So close. Four seconds. That's it. Just four.
Finished - And Feeling Great!
The four seconds has given me a new goal to work towards. I am chasing the sub2 monster, and I didn't even know I was. I'm going to give it again in September again. It is going to be a summer of training and hard work. And we'll see if the dividends pay out.
This medal is HUGE!
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