Here’s mine:
I don’t think I had ever run that fast before in my life. It was Christmastime and all the runners were given jingle bells. At the time, I was still a beginner and I was used to stopping frequently throughout my runs. So I’m jogging, lots of people passing me, I’m also passing others. It’s pretty cool. Then a kid passes me. Then another. And some more.
That’s cool too, I expected that. There are bound to be elementary school children faster than I am. What I didn’t anticipate was how many would keep pace with me.
I was tired and wanted to stop running. Then I looked down to find myself adrift in a sea of babies. I remember kids falling during laps in my formative years. Stampedes! Pile-ups! Only disaster could follow my stopping. They’d trample me, they’d trip, and we’d all fall down. Other races would have to avoid a tumbleweed made of a 4th grade classroom and what they assumed was the teacher, all going jingle-jingle-jingle. I dare not trust the coordination of myself and these cookie-fueled chaos factories. I had to keep running!
Anyway, eventually they split away from me and the rest of the race is a blurry lung-burn-y memory. I got a cookie and a finisher though.
So, what’s your 1st race story?
I prepped for my first race with c25k while taking my dog with. Started with muy dog always running faster, and ended with me pulling the dog by the last week. Pulling him meant we always went his pace, so my training runs were 35 min 5k’s at fastest. I felt like I might be able to go a bit faster, but wasn’t sure.
I got to the race, and it was a small race with about 250-300 people, but it felt huge to me. I got into the spot for an 11 minute mile pace, feeling pretty good. We started out, and it was a weird feeling that everyone was out there running, almost as fast as I was. I needed to pass a few people immediately though, which was also weird because I didn’t expect people to literally walk.
Maybe 2 people passed me the entire race. I passed maybe 30 people, it felt like so many. I started at 11 minute mile pace, and hit negative splits for every mile. I had to pass so many people. It felt like I was constantly weaving through people.
I felt great until the last half mile, where the final hill made me feel like I would die, but I made myself push through it. Finished at 29:59, a huge PR and a victory. I was so proud of that. I’ve run plenty faster since then, but that was still the best I’ve felt after a race.
In grade school I was out the day they did the mile run, so the next gym class, I had to run a mile while the rest of the class watched me. It was humiliating. I finished struggling terribly in 12:50. So in this race, I completed 2 miles longer with each mile well faster than my younger self. It felt like a redemption, only 20 some years later.
The line for the post-race cake pops was forever long, so we just left without them. It was mother’s day and we had a brunch later that day. As an aside, my favorite race was the same one the following year. I finished in 55 minutes walking with my mom.