speed demon

Saturday morning I got up, put on my running gear, and drove the Jeep to Blue Hill for the Great Pumpkin 4K race. I was all psyched to run fast and come home with 10 points for the Sub 5 track club series standings. Unfortunately, when 9:30 rolled around I went inside the grocery store and asked, "Has the race been cancelled?" "Uhh. The race is tomorrow," was the reply from the manager. 

Apparently the original series schedule had the race mismarked as being on Saturday, when all subsequent info had it on Sunday at 10:30. So, admiring the lovely town and the beautiful fall foliage coming into peak, I drove home,only to repeat all my preparations the next day and return, this time with a lot more precipitation coming down. When I told one of my friends what had happened, he said, "I can't believe you didn't go ahead and run the course for practice." I replied, "A real runner would have done that. It didn't even dawn on me to do so." 

The rain only let up for the 15 minutes we ran, and I took off in front early with a 6:08 first mile pace. The course was mainly downhill and since doing very well in my last few races, I knew I could maintain that pace for another 1.5 miles. I finished with a time of 15:16 and was the first female finisher, winning a $100 gas card. This was my first win with serious competition and I was grateful for my fellow runners' heartfelt congratulations. 

My racing didn't end in Blue Hill, I had to get home, change, and drive up to Bangor to teach CCD in record time, but we made the cutoff then too, pulling into the parking lot a mere 2 minutes before class began. What I really wanted was a nap, but I made it through class and Mass before collapsing in bed, completely exhausted from my fast paced day.