Last Place Runner

Half training is going surprisingly well. I’ve made peace with being slow, and I’ve even gotten a little faster with no real effort other than Coach’s prescribed consistency and patience.

I’ve also used Jeff Galloway’s run-walk-run method in my recent training. I’ll have to admit, at first I thought taking walk breaks during longer runs was what I shouldn’t be doing. And then I shaved 3 minutes off my two-mile run from one day to the next, even with 30-second walk breaks at half-mile intervals.

It wasn’t really too difficult to stay on track over Christmas, even though the group run the day after was cancelled. Some volunteers showed up in case anyone wanted to get the day’s run in with a group, but I couldn’t go because we left first thing for Justin’s parents’ house. I’d modified my schedule a little bit to make sure I didn’t miss too much on mileage.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Lauren asked me if I wanted to do a 10K on New Year’s Day. It was basically a free race, but you could make a donation to a local school’s cross country program. I wasn’t sure about doing a 10K, but I finally said what the hell and registered.

The race was put on by a couple in the next town. Like, literally at their house. And the house was open for everyone, and it had like 5 or 6 bathrooms. And they made blackeyed peas and cornbread for everyone — runners and spectators — in keeping with our Southern tradition for good luck. But I loathe blackeyed peas, so maybe being in the race will count for me. It was really just amazing that this couple pulled this off with 300 or more runners, right in the middle of their neighborhood.

I knew with so few people running (and so many of them were ultra-elite runners) that I could very well finish last. DFL. Especially doing the 10K distance. I really didn’t want to be last. But! Someone has to be last. Even more than not being last, I didn’t want to give up. So I didn’t.

Yesterday morning as I got ready for the race, I gave myself two goals: Finish. And finish in 2 hours.

I did finish. And I had the sweepers with me for the last 2.5 miles. We talked and laughed and they gave me encouragement because I was only trailing behind another group by less than .1 mile or so. The route was out and back, so the hill we’d coasted down on the way out was a real bitch coming back in.

My parents had never come to see me run before, and I sent my mom a text at mile 4.22 to tell them I was dead last and not to come. But they were already headed that way. I ran past them up the hill toward the finish line yelling, “I am NOT going to puke!” and finished my first official 10K at 1:37:18. So, yeah, I killed my time goal at least!

Then we all went to my brother’s burrito restaurant and quickly replenished our calorie deficit.

We had a 3-mile group run this morning, but it pretty much had to be a recovery run for me. I ran with the volunteer I met the first week, Alisha, and met a new girl named Bridget. She told me right away that she didn’t think she was ready for 3 miles, so she was going to run one mile out and go back. I told her I was slower today because of yesterday, and we talked some about Jeff Galloway. She said she wonders sometimes if she should’ve signed up for the group training and for the half marathon. And I told her there are more than 100 people on a wait list hoping we will quit, so we just are not going to quit. And she ended up running most of the 3 miles with me and Alisha.

Tomorrow is a rest day. Sweet, blessed rest day. Sometimes I get antsy on rest days, but I am so looking forward to the break!