I Blog a 15K

I could say I RAN a 15K.

But that would be a bit of a lie.

There was some running.

Some.

Mostly it was me waving at the 80 year old men passing me in their hovarounds.

Sheesh.

As anyone in any close proximity of me knows, I have not been able to run for three weeks due to an acute respiratory illness.  I cannot say “infection” as I never spiked a fever indicating the infection.  No, just some virus in my lungs.  Following the “below the neck” rule of not exercising when you are ill below the neck, I sat around for three weeks.  Finally getting clearance to run a mere three days before the big 15K.

I had put in some long runs prior to my illness.  A couple eights, a nine, and run/walked a ten.  So I figure we’ll give it a go.

Most important thing to do while not training thru an illness?  Wear your shoes.

I learned this when I jumped into the shower after the race and two of my toes said “WTF?”  Yes, I had runner’s toe.  A big ginormous blood blister on two toes.  Not cool.  I’m guessing that it’s because my shoes had forgotten my feet during my absence.

The next most important thing.  Make sure your bewbs are properly placed.  Now usually I take great pride in proper placement of the bewbs, but at 5 in the a.m. didn’t really do them justice and got a rash on the underside.  Woot.

So. To the actual race.

I got there, even though they moved it without telling anyone….hello?  Got my number and my tag and hung out listening to people talk smack about the guys in the (we’ll say) “orange” shirts. (not the actual color) and warn each other about the kids from my neighborhood elementary school and their lack of running etiquette.  I hung out near the back of the pack because I knew I’d be one of the slow ones.

Also running at the same time was a 5K as well as a 2 mile walk.  So, there were many people.

Then, it was time.

Even though I had not run in three whole weeks, I felt pretty great right from the start.  I had preplanned doing a run/walk due to lack of training and that first walk was a hard one to swallow.  Each race had it’s own color.  15K was red.  5K was black as were the walkers but they had smaller numbers.  As I finished my walk and picked back up, I was right in the midst of several red numbers.

The course was marked by mile and the first mile came easy.  I knew I was running it at a slower pace than I had the 5K a month earlier, but kept reminding myself I had 6.2 miles farther to go.  As we approached the 5K turnaround someone was calling split times.

This is were my red bunch buddies decided they weren’t feeling it and decided to turn around at the 5K.

Which I could have.

But I didn’t.

In those 100 meters after they had made the decision I told myself “I’ve been sick, I haven’t trained, I could be done with this in 10 minutes if I just turned the heck around”.  Then I told myself to shut the hell up.  We were running this thing.  Even if we came in last.

The crowd was significantly thinner as I ran through the 5K turnaround.  Waaaay up ahead I saw the pack of “orange” shirts.  Then it was staggered.  I was focused on green and yellow.   Both further ahead of me than I felt like chasing, but I figured as long as I can see them, I won’t be embarrassingly behind.  Even if I was last.

I also decided that this was my race.  The only person I had to beat was the one in my head.  Telling me “hey, you’d totally be done if you had just turned around.”

Most of the way I followed my run/walk plan.  I brought my iPod this time.  I walked during the first chorus of every song.  I made it through 40 minutes doing this.  Happy that I still hadn’t seen the first wave or returnees.  Then it got a little harder.  I shut off the music and focused on the gorgeous sunrise over the Bayfront.  The nice houses.  The numbers on spray painted on the course for the many races that had been held.  Once in awhile I would look up and see green and yellow and be content that they were still in the same place as they had been the last time I looked.  In front of me, but not by much.

As the first wave started coming back around they encouraged me on.  “Way to go.”  “Good  job.”  “There’s a water station pretty soon.”   There were groups bunched up.  There were single runners.  No one laughed or pointed or encouraged me to give up because I wasn’t even half way there.

and then I was.

Half way there.

And as I rounded the corner to come back I realized what I had suspected all along.

I was last.

Still yellow and green were right there, just out of my reach.  The same distance ahead of me as they had been the whole time.  I knew for sure green was a runner as she and her husband were discussing before the race.  I was happy to be so close to a “real runner”.  I also knew that I was pushing the limit of two hours that I had set for myself as the time I wanted to beat.  I wanted to beat 1:40 but knew after having been sick for three weeks that wasn’t going to happen.

For the next two miles I came up with reasons to quit, or not too.  I turned the music back on.  I told myself “just run to that tree, then walk”  “just run to that next street, then take a break.”   “See that crack in the sidewalk two feet in front of you?  Can you run that far?  How ’bout the next crack?  How ’bout the next crack.”

Turns out conversations in my head are really boring.  I just needed to run a little more.  I saw the main street.  I ran.  I saw the park.  I ran.  I walked awhile then I saw the water station.  I ran.  I walked.  I ran.  I walked.  I ran.  I just kept moving.  And just out of reach was yellow and green.

I made peace with the fact that I would not catch either of them.  I watched my time on the mile markers.  I, for the most part was keeping a steady pace.  When I got back to the turnaround for the 5K I calculated my time to be 3 minutes over.  Which is how I finished.  2:03:19

Last.

You know who noticed?

Of the 57 people who ran and completed the 15K that morning, who noticed I was last?

Me, and the guy collecting the timing chips.

And probably yellow and green.

But no one laughed.  Yellow and green had just gotten there.  Both finished after the two hour mark as well.  Yes I finished last, but I finished.

Even though I could have not shown up.  I could have done the 5K or the walk.  I could have handed my timing chip to one of the people at the water station and caught the next bus home.  But I didn’t.

I finished a 15K.

About

Annie is all things awesome. Singer of songs, thinker of thoughts, runner of miles. When she isn't getting paid to kick ass as a personal trainer and health coach, she's looking for her keys.