Day 84--Race Day

I DID IT!!!!
I started the day with three goals:
1. Don’t hurt myself. 2. Finish the Race. 3. Finish in about 45 minutes.
I accomplished all three goals. I’m not hurt and I finished the race. I finished the full race in 35 minutes 12 seconds.
I feel like I can safely call myself a runner now. It was exhilarating. I finally understand the “runners’ high” that I’ve heard everyone talk about. I also understand how the race day atmosphere can push you to do better than you do otherwise. I ran the first two miles in 22 minutes, and each mile took about the same time. That was my time for a one mile run, but not my goal for today. It just seemed possible when I saw others doing it. The last mile was tough and I walked part of it, but still managed to finish that in 13 minutes. It was encouraging to make the turn and see all the other runners that were behind me.
The race “organizers” need to change their title, though. It started 15 minutes late, which works out to 50% late. FAIL. There were also overlapping routes for the 5K & 10K runs, but there were no signs indicating the difference. They had guys with flags telling people which way to go. That would have been great, if we didn’t all have headphones on and could have heard him. SIGNS would have been a really good idea. Also, there were crowd barriers that were set up in the middle of the path. I saw numerous people nearly run into them.
I’m now looking forward to the next race. I want to improve my time. I am looking for suggestions of any May races that are in the area and are for a good cause.