Basking in the Glory!!

I consider myself not overly obnoxious about running. For the most part I try not to share my times or gloat about my victories, but I didn't follow that rule today. I won third overall for the females in the 10k. Honestly, I didn't even think I would PR let alone place, but I accomplished both with a 48:20 Best part about this whole thing??? A giant sized check like they give you when you win prizes. So it was for $50, but it's better than nothing. 

So lets start by trying to figure out how I pulled this off. For dinner, I had the free dinner that was offered to us by the race hosts. The dinner consisted of salad, Pepsi, chicken Marsala and a bread roll. I did have tropical dots for dessert (I got 13 boxes for Christmas so ill be having dots a lot). Note to self: dots may be the key to a good run... 

I didn't do anything out of the ordinary that night and I had the worst sleep. I woke up about 4-5 times throughout the night and had a hard time falling back asleep. I finally woke up at about 5:15 and just started getting ready.. My friend k was going to meet me there but at 5:30 I got a text she wasn't feeling well. At that point I contemplated not even racing, I'm so glad I didn't listen. 

Once I got to the race I did my usual meandering the grounds and tried to stay mellow. The race started late which sucked because I just wanted to get the race done.. Once the race started I took off towards the front and I made my way slowly towards the front of the pack, and by mile 2 I had taken the lead. Once I got the lead I got excited and told myself I had to maintain or quicken the pace; I couldn't fall behind. My legs quickly grew tired and by mile 4 I was caught. Over the next 2 miles one more girl caught up to me and I tried my hardest to stay close to them. It was at mile 5.5 where my body started yelling at me. I actually almost threw up but I think that was my mind playing a trick on me because I as totally fine 2 seconds later. I'm not going to lie, at this point I started looking back to see if anyone was close by (yes, I turned into that person who looks over their shoulders - ick).. Once I saw the finish line I tried sprinting it in (to me it felt like a sprint but I might have been as slow as molasses). 

At the finish line I met up with other two girls and while we talked we realized we had made top three... Which meant cash prizes!! However, we needed to check the official results before getting super excited.. We ran over to the results and sure enough.. All three of us made it!! I got $50 in the form of a giant check and I couldn't believe it. Yes, I called people, texted people, and posted my picture on Facebook. I was ecstatic and proud of myself. It's incredible how much I could push

myself today, and I continue to realize that I have the ability to go harder and faster. Now, to figure out how to cash this thing..