I woke up this morning and told Aaron that I felt better. I was correct, sort of. My head cold was gone; but it had moved into my chest. I waited inside the Radisson for the race to start. As I was sitting there waiting I realized something else..I was tired. I didn’t really want to run 13 miles. At mile one I was starting to despair; my legs were already achy. My chest congestion was not allowing me to get a deep breadth, which resulted in little oxygen making it to my legs. I knew at that point that I was in trouble.
I really wasn’t looking forward to the next 12 miles; but I knew I would not stop. I told myself over and over “this is what determines who you are”. It’s easy to keep going when it’s easy; much harder when it’s not. At about mile 6 I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to run a good race time wise, but I could still have fun. I took out my phone and took pictures as I ran.
I called Aaron around mile 9 and told him to head toward the finish line. Then the worst thing possible happened (well not the worst, but pretty close) at mile 10 my ITB started hurting-badly. At one point I was running with clenched fists. I stopped twice to stretch (didn’t help at all). My goal for the next 3 miles was to run on every piece of grass I could find and get it done.
As I turned the corner and saw the finish line a surge of excitement came over me. I was so close to being done, Aaron and the kids were waiting to cheer me on, and I was tired of everyone passing me J So I bolted down the street and passed at least 5 runners before I crossed the finish line.
My initial goal was to beat last year’s time (2 hours 15 minutes). Actually, I wanted my time to be less than 2 hour 10 minutes (that would be a 10 minute pace, and I wanted my pace to be under 10). My finishing time- 2 hours 7 minutes! I PR’ed !!!!
(PR=personal record)
Aaron took this picture as I was jetting to the finish line. I'm preparing to pass the girl in the black capri's. I ended up passing everyone that was in front of me :)
Some pictures to compare and show what healthy eating can do :)
This year-
Last year-
Last year-
2 comments:
Great job, Amy. God answers prayer!!
Wow! Look at you defeating the odds. You did GREAT! Way to set a personal record for yourself! That's awesome, especially after the circumstances of not feeling well, etc... I'm so proud of you!
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