As often happens, I go to the race by myself. How well I realize how lovely a sleeping child is...waking them up early for a race could set me up for some serious tantrums later in the day. I mosey to the starting line after the gun went off (chip timed...no rush, right? It's a self-imposed exercise in CHILLING OUT as I tend to be too uptight) and start running, realizing this could be the last hospitable morning run Houston has to offer me until November when the inferno begins to wane (and not caring too much since I'd be leaving for Utah in a matter of days). Soon I find I settle into a pace a mere 10 or so yards behind a girl probably my same age, which slightly bothers me as I realize there's only one girl ahead of her. And I can't seem to close that gap. At all. We stick with that distance the better portion of the 5k and finish, contenting myself that she beat me. Only to find out on the results that because of my lolly-gagging at the start line I had actually beat her by a matter of TENTHS of a second based on our chip time. I feel equal parts guilty and pleased (this same thing happened to me last year at one of my triathlons - only I was the one who came in second after accounting for chip time).
I leave the race to do my additional 6 or 7 miles where I run into the girl again. She's also tacking on more miles to get a decent long run in. We stopped to chat for a bit and decided to meet up for a run sometime as we obviously have similar running dispositions. Weeks pass as I go to Utah, survive a call week, and struggle to find motivation to get out and run in the Houston heat, when fate strikes again and I run into her at the YMCA pool with our kids. So we finally went on a run this morning.
Running with friends is so awesome. Even if I tend to talk their ear off (it's the trainer in me...most of my clients liked the distraction). Thanks, Laura, for the fantastic run! Looking forward to many more - maybe we can get each other to that sub-20 5k!
No comments:
Post a Comment