Painful Victory

On Saturday, April 17th I ran my second race of the year! The anticipation for the race had started creeping up on me a week prior to the race but was full blown nerves and worries on Friday night. I had such a hard time falling asleep! All I could think about was whether or not I'd be happy or disappointed the following morning.  I just had to believe I could do it and not fear disappointment.  My head was spinning because I knew there was a possibility of disappointment.  I fully believed that if I ran to my fullest potential, I would improve my time.  The problem however was not believing I could run faster but improving my time while running injured.  Two weeks earlier I had started to aggravate my knee and about 3 days prior to the race I was seriously considering not running for fear I might do some damage to my knee. My gut instincts told me I could handle it and despite the fact there wasn't any improvement I moved forward and decided to race anyway.

I'm glad I did! I know I'm just getting back into running but I have to remember that I'm not new to this. I can trust my instincts and my body. Yes, it feels like starting over but no I'm really not.

On race day I feared that all my efforts on race day to produce the fruits of my labor would be for nothing because I wouldn't be able to run to my full potential or even close to. I was wrong. Very, very wrong! To gauge improvement and set goals I used my February FROSTY FOOTRACE 5K TIME of 30:20.1 (9:47/M pace). My hope was to run faster than the 30:20.1 I ran in February but my goal was 27:51 and to run an 8:58 pace. Sooooooo how did I do on Saturday???

My TAKE A STEP FOR KIDS 5K TIME was 26:57 (8:42/M pace). I placed:

• 67th out 472 total runners (top 14%)

• 23rd out of 309 women (top 7%)

• and 3rd out of 44 women in my age division (top 7%)

When I was done running I waited in line to get a print out of my time and place...

I kid you not, as soon as I looked at my print out and read the number 3 they read my name and I walked to the front to get my 3rd place medal.

I was in total shock and couldn't believe that I had actually won a medal after so many years! Furthermore, I was happy that I didn't get the medal by default but had actually EARNED it by competing against 44 other women in my division. It felt awesome! I felt validated and felt there was hope to recapture old glory.

The best part about it was having my children there. My son asked me, "Mom, did you win a medal because you were the fastest?" I almost said no and then I smiled and said, "Yes, I was one of the fastest!" I couldn't believe I was bragging and BRAGGING to my almost 4 year old son! And of course they all took turns wearing the medal! It was an awesome moment!

"Mamma, is this a cookie?"

"Mamma, can I have your medal?

"Mamma, were you the fastest?

Afterwards, my family took me for an out of the norm brunch at Denny's where the taste of victory was soon replaced with worry and pain. My darn knee!  It is upsetting that my celebration was so short lived and overshadowed by injury. But at least I got a little taste of success and once that happens....Well, we will wait and see, now won't we?

Click on KNEE INJURY to read about my Dr.'s evalutation.