I made the first loop at a pace of 11:39, I’m doing good, I
thought to myself. My instructions were to enter the path at the second entrance,
I did but I didn't see anyone. So I ran back off the trail and ran to the third
entrance, I still didn’t see anyone, but decided to proceed anyway. A little
about River Legacy Park, it’s heavily wooded area where wildlife like to
hangout. The trails are color marked by distance. I was on the blue trail, all
alone and I realized I left my mace in my car, dang it. I thought it might be a
good idea to pick up my pace. Then a biker passed me, so I thought I need to
keep sight of him. Did the best I could but who was I kidding, he was going
over 20 mph, I was only averaging in the single digits. But thanks to him, I
was able to complete mile 2 and 3 at 11:39 and 11:01 pace.
Usually after mile 3, I walk to regain my energy, but I
heard my running buddy Marilyn, saying Lenora you can do 4 miles nonstop, so I
kept moving. I decided I would start my run/walk intervals at mile 5, but the
Black Eyed Peas song “Let’s Get It Started” came on, so I decided to run
through this song. The song took me straight into mile 6. I stopped running to
take a drink break and adjust my hydration belt; I looked up to see Sarah aka
Speed Angel (pace 7-8) heading back. That’s when I decided I needed to hurry to
the turnaround point because I would definitely catch up with the slower pace runners.
When I made it to the turnaround, I didn’t see anyone but since I took the
wrong path in the beginning, I was ahead of the mile markers, so I turned
around to head back. My goal was to slowly run miles 7-9. I heard and
saw something moving in the bushes and got scared, then I heard “Hey Girlie” from behind me on the trail, it
was Awesome Alice, so I decided to keep up with her. She had me moving faster
than I have ever ran and further than I planned to run nonstop, I could
actually feel the cholesterol moving out of my heart valves. Alice got me to
the end of trail with only 1.5 miles to go. Now I could walk, that’s when the
confusion set in, I look at my watch incorrectly and read that I needed to complete
2 miles, so I jumped back on the blue trail, twice before hitting the final
loop. Confusion still working because I couldn’t tell which direction to run.
There was also another race, so since I kept running in circles, I was
confusing their race monitors.
Finally, I told myself to get off the trail and just run to
the finish line, but I still was reading my watch incorrectly, so I ran past
the finish line to loop around and come back after I reached 13 miles. That’s
when it dawned on me to stop and check my watch; it read 12.95, well I’ll be
darned. I turned around and headed back, finish line in sight; but no silly me
trying to turn off my music, I hit the stop button. I had to re-start my watch
to get the remaining .06 to have an official distance. I finished with an
official time of 2:32:44, my best time to date. I really am a Hot Mama that
runs.
