So that was a year ago. I've run a bunch of races since then, gotten a little faster, and have some how been lucky enough to win a number of prizes. I now have quite a collection of race shirts...but none of them offered quite as amazing of a shirt as the first glow-in-the-dark shirt of my dreams.
So it was pretty exciting to return to my first ever race this year. However, there were complications. A lot of really complicated complications really. See, every race I've run so far has been sequentially faster and faster. I always knew that this trend couldn't last forever, but in the back of my mind, I dreaded the day that I ran a slower race than my previous one. Well, going into tonight's race, I knew that it was bound to happen...and I'll list the reasons why.
1) I've been deathly sick and existing on a diet primarily comprised of cough drops and NyQuil for well over a week now.
2) Work has been crazy. I've been working a bunch of overtime, and even had to work today on the weekend.
3) Since I've been sick/working overtime, I haven't been running at all in the past eleven days. Really, I've only run two days of the past seventeen days.
4) My last race went pretty well (considering I was running though shin splints), and the time was realistically in the range of what I'm currently capable of.
5). This race is in the dark, illuminated by glowsticks like a rave, and on a mix of weird surfaces.
...So yeah, it happened. I ran almost two minutes slower than my last race and crossed the finish line feeling like a failure (regardless of the above listed considerations). I did manage to get this to soften the blow though. Yup, since Nicole was too sick to defend her first place age group prize from last year, I managed to win mine this year. I honestly have no idea how that happened considering I was too sick to get out of bed just a few days ago. To celebrate, we had popsicle and beer bathtime. So even my dreaded first non-PR race didn't end up so badly. I'm still getting over the shock.
