Saturday, I woke up and ate breakfast with AJ, (half bagel, OJ and a blueberry muffin) then, hit the potty three times, then headed off for the run. AJ hasn't been running, so it was just me. Also, last year half of Holly's family ran the half marathon, and this year they decided not to come.
It was cold. Brr. I wore under armour and a beanie with running gloves. No sweat pants this year. The half-marathon was 9am start. Then my race started about 9:10. I knocked some people out of the way and got to the front. (No, I really didn't knock anyone out of the way.)
I'd like to say that I was telling myself good positive thoughts and that maybe I was being cocky and telling other runners that they were going to eat my dust or whatever, but actually, I felt like I would be lucky if I could make it the whole way without stopping to walk. Then right towards the end of the waiting period, a positive thought did cross my mind. So, I decided to run semi-fast. Not go all out, but to go kinda fast.
They counted it down and we were off. After the first 100 meters or so, I saw AJ, Holly, and Kamri, I was still going strong, so I waved to them and tried to act like I wasn't already tired. My first mile came in at 6:41, it seemed to take forever to get there. The next mile came in 7:07 and then I crossed the finish line in 7:55. I didn't push it at the end. I'm not sure it would have felt good, and not sure how much I could've really pushed.
There were three little kids, age 11-14 that passed me somewhere between miles 1 & 2and there were three women that beat me. But, I am pretty sure that there weren't too many people that were as overweight as I am that beat me.
After running thru the finish, I gathered my breath, got a hug and kiss from Holly and hugs from AJ and was real happy that I only did the 5k. Somehow, I was ready to go do some more!
I made my way over to the finish table where they have the finish cards with the unofficial times and finish positions printed on them. It took forever to find mine. I finally found it and was happy to see I ran in 21:42. I was 29th overall. Then I looked onto my age group finish, I was sure I would see that I was 4th or 5th place. I was quite surprised to see that I placed 1st in my group. My heart said "Wahoo!" I've never won any running event since I was in elementary. So, that is pretty cool.
AJ took this picture. It is my "tough guy" pose.
So I received a pretty cool crystal and $20 gift certificate for my 35-39 year old male 1st place finish. But, I was probably more happy to have AJ and Holly there to give me hugs and encouragement.
Here is the results! It says I beat the next guy in my age group by 33.3 seconds. I wasn't just beating them, I was killing them! "Boom goes the dynamite!" It is all part of history now... when the other runners' grandkids do geaology research they will always see my name at the top, and under their breath, they will mutter, damn that yergensen guy was fast.... (maybe not)
2 comments:
CONGRATULATIONS!!! That is great! I'm glad you aren't in my age group, there is no way I would be able to keep up with that!
WTG Andy. Love the blog and pic's.
Post a Comment