Well, we didn't get our PR at the Dawes 5K a few weeks back. But, the surprise was phenomenal! It was a very rainy morning and the boot camp group was huddled under a grove of trees. We snuck up on mom and Kathy said, "Diane, are you ready to meet your runner?" She said yes of course and turned around to find us. It was fantastic. Totally surprised!
Then, I proceeded to be surprised at the massive hills on the course. Wowzers. I know Indiana is flat, but you don't know how flat until you run in a hilly area I guess. After a 15 minute thunderstorm delay, we got started. My thought was that we would run 1:55 quarter miles. I had used a Sharpie to write out our 1/2 mile split times on my wrist.
Well, that was all for naught as neither of our watches would get a signal. I felt really bad after a little while and wondered how slow we were going. As we passed the 1 mile mark, someone was yelling out split times. "6:55, 6:56, 6:57" No wonder I was beat! At least I had my sub-7 mile!
After the mile mark, things started going downhill... actually, they started going uphill. There were two long hills on this course. We walked for just a little while after the first big hill. Someone at the top was telling us no more big hills and we're almost done. If you ever spectate a course, don't do this unless it is literally downhill and the finish line is in sight. There was in fact, one more hill that was not much of an incline but certainly long. And, we had about a mile left.
I sent mom ahead as I was done. She finished with a 24:37. Wow. Totally impressive! Not the PR she was gunning for but a really great time for such a tough course. I just hope I didn't hold her back!
I rolled in at a 25:12, just 6 seconds away from a PR. While I was beat and exhausted, I haven't stopped thinking about those 6 little seconds and how I could have found those somewhere along the way.
Time for the award ceremony! Mom and dad were the honorary chairpeople for the event and so dad talked for a bit and then he and mom helped hand out awards.
Mom and Tom both took 1st place for their age divisions! Tom had a PR with 22:47. This is even more crazy since he really wasn't able to run until just the week before this race due to a stress fracture.
So proud of these two! It was a very large crowd and mom was 1st out of 13 and Tom was also 1st out of 13 in their age divisions!
Sour grapes time for Sara... If I was disappointed with my 6 seconds from PR, I was just plain mad when I found I lost my age division by 15 seconds to someone who passed me in the last 1/2 mile. I had that. I keep thinking if I had my watch working, I would have had it. Then, I think, nope. I gave up. Even though I felt like I didn't have anything left, I could have done more. Who knows. The optimist in me says that there is always next time. The pessimist asks why I didn't try harder.
Good thing these times really just don't matter. The important thing is that we were there and we're running and we're fit and we had a lot of fun doing it. That being said, I'm ready to try again. I know it's within reach on a flatter course. I'll keep after it and I'm sure I'll get that sub 25 one of these days!
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