Whew! I’m halfway there! One of my resolutions for this year was to compete in six races. Today, I got number 3 under my belt :) I headed to Florence, SC to run the Race4Taylor.
It’s a race that benefits local high school students by awarding 3 scholarships. Taylor was an amazing track athlete who was killed 4 years ago in a tragic car accident while on his way to preview a college.
It was a great day to run! The sky was clear and the sun was peeking up on the horizon. Over 300 runners came out. We had the privilege to watch a former Olympian run with us. I can say that I ran with an Olympian twice (rather she passed me twice!). Zola competed in the 1984 Olympics and set a world record at the mere age of 17. She runs a 4:17 mile people! Needless to say it was like watching Roadrunner zoom by you :)
I’d been talking with Anna from The Things I’m Learning about my running. She’s a huge motivation for me and has helped me come a long way on my journey to become a runner. She suggested doing interval work and running on a treadmill to help out with my pace and breathing. So that’s what I’ve been doing! We both ran the 5K yesterday and I was thrilled to see her jumping up and down cheering me on as I raced towards the finish line chute. She mentioned a couple of weeks ago in one of her post race posts about pulling your earbuds out before you hit the finish line. I remembered and it was awesome to hear the encouragement from other runners at the finish line!
I came in at 41:45 which beat my last race time by a little over 2 minutes :) for some reason I really struggled on my first mile. Fancy Nancy was a good 1/4 mile in front of me and probably would have beaten me if she hadn’t deviated onto the 10K course :( it was kind of comical. I’m running and I noticed this blue jacket going one way and the runners going the other way. I got up to the road where she had turned and realized the arrows were for the 10K. Thank goodness for running with technology! I paused my music, told my phone to call her and never missed a stride as I informed Fancy Nancy that she was on the wrong course. She turned around and I dare say it wasn’t long before I saw that blue jacket over my shoulder. I knew I had to up my game and by this point I was well into the 2.5 mile mark.
I picked a runner and caught them, picked another runner and caught them and gradually started working my way up. I passed two snakes on the course which made me a little nervous! Thankfully they were both dead but still one was a rattlesnake!
I’m glad I’m starting to improve! My goal is too continue my interval training, add in some core traning, and work on my breathing which I’ve been doing with yoga.
Happy Running My Lovelies!
XOXO~ Lemon Raindrop
Adventures with Kat 