Good at Exercise

Whenever I walk in from a run, race or not, the three-year old asks me if I won. I of course always tell him that I did. Coming home from this weekends half marathon was no exception. He was barely awake from a nap and he wanted to know if I won. He is in awe at my abilities no doubt. He has been walking around my medal from the Soldier Field 10 Miler (the 1/2 marathon one is too heavy), he also wore it to school today and announced to the class that his mom won the race.  Hmmm, maybe I should clarify MY definition of win to him.

I may not have won the half-marathon, but crossing the finish line is definitely in my definition of win. I missed my goal time by this much. Kind of disappointing.  But I have to respect my finish time, I didn’t have anything left in me.  I was on pace during the first half, a few cramps in the middle that slowed me a bit, and then the last 3.1 miles were a lifetime.  At one point I was pretty sure we were never turning around to head back.

Watching the crowd is a great distraction.  One guy I saw a bunch of times from start to finish was holding a sign that read “You are all very good at exercise.”  A funny sign with a bit or ironic insult.  Not everyone gets the appeal of a race.

Chicago has some great races that attract a ton of people that do see the appeal.  They need to send the race directors to San Francisco to  learn how to get runners across the start line in a decent amount of time. Forty minutes seems to the be the average for these large Chicago races, in SF it took under 3 minutes. It is such a energy drain to sit there for so long and wait, and wait, and wait. Besides that it was a great race,  worth the entry fee. They had a ton of water on the course, they had GU available at one stop, they handed out cold wet sponges, and had a few misters along the course too. They were well prepared for the heat, luckily it was not as brutal as it could have been.  The finish line was great too. They handed out ice cold washcloths, cold drinks, popsicles, sliced oranges and granola bars.  Good stuff, building a better life.  The free cold beer at the end wasn’t too bad either!

My race partners, Kelly and John, did awesome!  Now to figure out the next race.