Rough Rider Marathon
The Rough Rider Marathon was amazing and as usual the same crowd of eager athletes trying to accomplish a feat, which most people find extremely painful were there and ready to run. The weather seemed close to freezing in the morning even though, in reality, it was probably in the 40's. However, with the wind coming off river it seemed much colder. Unlike most races, this race played music that reminded me of being at a prom; so much so that the DJ even asked for song requests and after hearing "9 to 5" twice, I decided to pump it up a notch and requested some Daft Punk. The 30-40 yr old crowd started dancing, awkwardly, however the quality of music was much appreciated not so much by the dancing but the head nods after 30 seconds of song playing from various people standing nearby.
As I was stretching, to my right were 3-4 elite looking runners in their mid 30's jumping up and down and with a number on their chest sporting Runners World in bold. At that point there was absolutely no way that 3rd or 4th place was possible, these girls were talking about finishing this thing in 19 minutes or less. Once the gun shot, my mind quickly went into focus mode and the only thing that crossed my mind was the beauty of the scenery and the girls shortly ahead. Mile 1 went by extremely fast and ran right along the river. Cheerleaders were obnoxiously screaming as runners passed and were sort of embarrassing due to the fact that at that moment there was no one else around except me. As the turn around approached at mile 1.5 two girls and a guy were in sight and at that point my legs, speeding up and pain free, just started moving at speeds that I've never experienced at this point in a race or training run. Before long I passed 2 girls and 1 guy in their mid 20's, a feat that didn’t seem possible at the beginning of the race. As mile 3 approached my body was spent but in my sight was one last girl who seemed to be slowing down and with only .25 of a mile left was not going to slow down but if anything, determined to catch her.
Sure enough the last .25 of a mile was spent chasing her until she was no longer ahead of me. The crowd was cheering me on and the moment felt like winning the Super bowl when there is only 18 seconds left and the running back (girl in front) is running towards the 1 yard line and I’m determined to stop her before scoring. My goal was accomplished and final time was 22 minutes 19 seconds (6 min 50 sec/mile pace). Overall I placed 11th out of 200 people, 4th in my division. Not too shabby.....