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.
Awesome job Lenora!!! I almost got lost myself on the way back, LOL!
ReplyDeleteThanks MoFo. Let's blame it on the heat, LOL!
DeleteFunny read!!! Congratulations on your race Lenora.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scymentress.
DeleteAwesome post....Def hilarious! GREAT JOB on completing the Half! (found your blog on BGR! Dallas)
ReplyDeleteThanks Shezira. I do my best to find humor in life.
Delete