Accidental Gets Intentional, Part 2

Many months ago, when we last left our fearless heroine, she was running a 5K. Okay, so it was only weeks ago, not months, but it might has well have been months. At any rate, on to the second mile ...

Once I slowed down a bit, my breathing became more regulated. I was still pushing myself at a pace faster than my usual, but I was not going all out. Despite the heat, I wasn't feeling nearly as bad as I expected. Still, I decided I needed a little extra push, so I picked out two women who were slightly ahead of me I wanted to beat and made that my next goal.  

Competition #1 had passed me just across the starting line and had steadily kept up a pace that left her marginally ahead of me. She was a couple years older than me and quite a bit bigger. I convinced myself I could beat her.

My next target was chosen out of pure spite. Youngish, cute and skinny, Competition #2 might have had a bullseye painted on her back. On top of that, she was wearing yoga pants, which I thought was ludicrous considering the weather. The nail in her coffin was the fact that she was alternating periods of running really fast with periods of slow walking. She would pass me  when she was running and I would pass her when she was walking, which I just found really annoying.

I sped up a bit and finally passed Competition #1. Competition #2 remained elusive. Finally I hit the two-mile mark. My time was still looking on target, but I had already decided I was going to go pretty much all out for the last mile. After a bit I finally passed Competition #2 for the last time. As I rounded the back side of the pond, I knew I would make my time goal and my goal of beating #1 and #2. When I neared the finish line, I realized I could not only finish faster than a time of 42 minutes, I had a chance of finishing faster than 41 minutes. So, I gave it everything I could and crossed the line at 40:55.

My coworker Katie (with me above) was cheering me on at the finish line. She and her husband finished at about 32 minutes, three minutes faster than their goal. 

This experience was such a rush. I never imagined I could possibly enjoy running as much as I have. I'm tentatively planning that my next 5K will be on August 1. (I may try to squeeze one more in before that.) I'd like to take at least another couple minutes off my time for that race, because I want to do this race at the end of August and for that I have an even loftier goal.