So as most of you know I've been running as a way to get some exercise. I'm definitely not hard core and still struggle often with pushing myself once I get into my mind I'm going to explode. But somehow I got convinced into doing the 10K race (6.1 miles) instead of the 5K (3.2 miles) at our annual Best Dam Run in Georgia trip up to Lake Hartwell, GA. It's a beautiful race that goes over the Hartwell Dam and it's really flat, which rules. Up until Saturday, May 5 I had never really ran farther then a 10K. Of course it would have made sense to train for this over the past few weeks. But despite Jamie's, Christina's, Amy Mo's...oh and Laura's best efforts, I could always find an excuse to slow down, take it easy, breathe, etc.
Well, this year there was about 12 of us that left at 6:15am to drive up to Hartwell which is on the GA/SC border. When we were about halfway there it started raining. Jamie and I took this as a sigh that we should do the 5k instead. Nathan and MK were not convinced. I'm not sure why. Running for an hour in the best weather already seemed like a pretty bad idea to me.
The rain never let up, and neither did Nathan's spirits. It took a lot of pushing and manipulating but somehow I found myself at the starting line next to Christina and the words "10K runners line up here). Hmmmm...the rain was already dripping off my shirt by the time they said "go!".
The race was pretty miserable. However, I was able to achieve two of my goals: not being last and running farther then I've ever gone. There were five people who finished behind me, and I ran the whole thing except for like 1/4 of a mile. I also met a new friend named Quincy. I heard him coming up behind me when I had been walking for a bit. When he got close he said "you've still got some left in ya". We ended up running the rest of the race together, because lo and behold, we had the same lofty goals. Quincy knows me as "Jessie" because apparently I was too tired to tell him my whole name when he asked. But, this launched an interesting conversation on the way home about who calls me Jessie. Basically, it's limited to Quincy and some of my relatives.
Props to Nathan who convinced us to do the 10K, and to all my friends who ran it!!! We're just really cool.
2 comments:
could the kenyans count for people who call you jessie? it's close..."jessie ka"! haha, that's kinda funny!
Okay I'm a little late on the blog readings, but I was busy with my new grandchild and becoming a Nana......What a surprise to read you ran a marathon, way to go Jessie girl.....We here in MN are very proud of you.......Love you, Aunt (Nana) Deb
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