I mentioned to a coworker that I was thinking about running a few miles on the dread-mill over the weekend to celebrate my six months of freedom. He asked why a dread-mill when there was another local 5k? I did not care that I only found out about the race the day before or that I would be running it alone. I drove to packet pickup less than twenty-four hours before the race and registered.
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| Rocking another Zazzle awareness item before the race. |
I am still getting used to this weird season called
fall. Most of the previous places I've lived only have
summer and
mild winter. From what I gather,
fall means that you are going to
freeze in the morning, be comfortable at lunch and then
freeze at night. This race was in the morning. I froze.
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| Photo is from before the race. My nose was already numb. |
There were two paramedics on bicycles for the race. I did go up to speak to one of them, but it was not to test their knowledge of Adrenal Insufficiency. I wanted a picture of my
zazzle shirt and my sweet running pants.
Once again, I sprinted across the finish line. But there was no runner to pass. I was racing against myself, seeking that unexplainable joy.
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| Joy. Pure joy whenever I finish a race. |
After the race, I found the sheet of paper where the times of everyone were posted, but something was wrong. I could not find my name. This concerned me, so I went over to the timing booth and asked about it. Because I had registered so late, my name was not yet associated with my bib number. But the man in the timing booth would fix it. He also mentioned I should probably stick around for the awards ceremony.
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| I won second in my age group! |
Although I ran this 5k twenty seconds faster than my
5k with a mission, I did not run it fast enough to claim gold. Instead, I was awarded the silver medal. I am enjoying running in a significantly less competitive market than Dallas. Not only have I been able to return to one of my loves, I keep receiving tangible rewards for my efforts. It's some pretty good motivation for me to keep at it.
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| Another medal to add to the collection! |
Labels: New Adventures, Running
