I was just thinking about the first 5k I ever ran with the double jogging stroller. I ran at 10:13 pace, so was towards the back of the pack, but certainly not last.
At about mile 2 I rounded a corner and went by a police officer and race volunteer, gave them a little wave and thank you, and kept going.
As I was lifting my hand to wave, the police officer looked at me and the stroller, looked back at the volunteer, and said “So, that’s probably it then?”
Not able to see around the corner, he assumed that the mother runner pushing two kids HAD to be the tail end of the race.
I came in 57th out of 101 people. That officer had to stand there JUST a bit longer.
Now, it’s totally possible that I was overhearing a snippet of conversation out of context. But I think he genuinely thought I had to be one of the last runners.
The thrill of this story isn’t that I was faster than the people behind me, it’s that I surprised him by what I was capable of. He didn’t know what pace I was running, he just assumed the kids would slow me down to match the runners at the end of the race, not in the middle.
It feels good to surprise someone with what you’re capable of.
One happy running moment was when I ran a 10k last November after training with a coach all summer. Running in July-Sept in California was hot and I never could beat my goal of finishing in under 1 hour so I gave up on the goal and trained to get a little faster each week.
When race day arrived it was cold and chilly and I did a longer warm up than usual, so long that I found myself at the back of the pack when the race started because I got back too late. During the race I felt good but didn’t think anything magical was happening, in fact, I know I went out too fast. My garmin wasn’t giving me pace and my new playlist seemed to be repeating the same 3 songs. Struggling with my watch and playlist had to have cost me some time but I kept going, I had people waiting for me at the finish line. I was overwhelmed to see that not only did I have a new PR, I came in at 58:56! Adrenaline on race day is a wonderful thing. : )
LOVE it.
Kelly already knows this story, but this past summer a HM I’d really been looking forward to was cancelled. My husband suggested I look for a different one and I was able to find one close by that was surprisingly affordable – it was a combo 5K, 10K, HM and full marathon. The race was very, very small – about 20 runners in total – and very low key and no-frills. At one point in the race, I saw someone on their way back. I put out my hand for a low-five, but he just waved and at the last moment he realized my low-five intent and he quickly changed his hand position but at the same time I changed mine to a wave and it turned into an awkward no-five.
It was a hot, hot morning and I didn’t PR, but when I checked in at the finish line, I was informed I’d placed second. WHAT? Then they handed me a second place medal.
Once home, I find my husband is pretty thrilled with my medal. I tell him it was really small race and there were only 6 women who ran the HM. He said, “Don’t minimize it. You earned second place.” I put my medal on the island and when the kids came down they asked, “How did it go?” I simply said, “I got a nice medal,” and when they picked it up, they saw 2nd place were happy for me.
I keep thinking that someday I’ll find a small enough race to get an age category award… but I don’t think it’ll be a half marathon or that I’ll get SECOND! I still love this story 🙂