Compete to Complete

Compete to complete....that was my mantra on Saturday. I heard that phrase used by my sweet friend Sharon once and it really fit my day yesterday. I admit upfront that I was not prepared properly for this race and I have no one to blame for that except myself. I've known for months that I was doing it and I didn't train for it. I've been shredding and doing other exercises, but I haven't clocked nearly enough time on the treadmill lately. Pure and simple, my fault. Here's the whole story......

This is my friends and I prior to the start of the race. We look pretty dry, don't we?

This is the starting line. There were 801 people. A new record for this race. I'm proud to say that my niece (and godchild) was the chairperson for this fundraiser for our school and they raised $14,500.00. I think that's awesome! Okay, the race starts and so does the mist, but it's not bad. We are jogging along the first mile pretty well. Mile two and we start to get different little aches, pains and cramps and begin to move at our own pace. I begin to do intervals of a minute of running and a minute of walking. A lady comes up next to me and asks if I am run/walking the race and I say yes. She becomes my new best friend. She is doing the same thing as me. She was very nice and we had a nice conversation. By now, the rain is a little harder and the pavement is slick and has wet sand and mud to watch for. By the last mile, I was walking more than I was running and I wasn't very happy about it. There wasn't much I could do about it either. My calves were screaming and I was wet and cold. This is where compete to complete became my mantra. I just kept plugging along thinking about Sharon and how she would have been prepared for this race and flying along the course. A few weeks ago she ran a mini marathon and is now in training for a half ironman. She is amazing and two years older than me.
So, we finally crossed the finish line. We were wet, cold, achy(sp?) and tired, but we were done.


I found my friends and we all looked like drowned rats. Comparing notes, we all had pretty much the same experience. We headed off to the warming tent and got a bowl of corned beef and cabbage, a water and an asiago cheese bagel and tried to warm up. I didn't warm up until I got home and soaked in a hot tub for an hour. This morning, it was all I could do to get out of bed. The front of my thighs and the backs of my calves were screaming and still are. Of course, this was the day we had picked to go to Costco. Now they really, really hurt.

So that is the saga of Nancy and the Irish. Maybe next time I should find a Running with the Polish race. Or maybe next time, I just need to train better.

p.s. I don't know how it works in your world, but in mine, if a godchild calls you godmommy, run for the hills as fast as you can. I was up most of Friday night making an 18 quart roaster of corned beef and cabbage. The good news is that it seemed to be a hit.