1st Place!

The good news: I won first place in a four mile race this morning!

The bad news: I had a difficult time getting through the run and a pretty crummy attitude.

I'll start at the beginning and explain what happened, though.

I signed up for the "Show Me the Finish Line" run benefiting Armenian Relief. There is a very large Armenian population here in the Fresno area. I figured it might be a small race considering the lack of information about the race and it being on a Sunday, but I had no idea just how small.

We got to the park early and enjoyed watching the boys run their races. Evan took first in his age group and first place overall! Hudson got first in his age group also!

There were probably 15 kids running the 1/4 mile race. It's a pretty long distance for a 3-year-old, so as the kids were racing back I walked down to encourage Hudson. At that point, Evan was in 2nd place behind a bigger kid, but I knew he could go faster. I yelled at him to "push it," and he did! I was so proud of how he dug down deep and found extra speed to cross the finish line first. I was proud of Hudson for not being afraid of all the kids racing at the same time and for not quitting at all! He barely needed my help coming back!


First place in the 4-and-under boys age group.


First place in the 6-year-old boys age group and first place overall with a time of 1:47.


I'm not a proud mom or anything!! I couldn't be more proud of these two little stinkers.

We had 45 minutes to kill before my race started, and I had to pee, so we jumped in the car and drove to Starbucks for a bathroom and some Hot Cocoa. Then we drove back to the park with plenty of time before my race.

It was at this point that I started to psyche myself out because there were at most 20 runners doing the four mile run with me. I was so anxious. In a bigger race, there are many more people to "blend in" with. I don't stick out as a slow runner. And there has always been someone behind me in every race I have done so far. None of these things should matter, but they did and they do.


No one is going to mistake me coming down the road in my non matching ensemble! Bright pink hat, bright blue shirt and bright orange shorts! And no, I'm not color blind! I just don't care so much about matching. I care about comfort.

The race director didn't even have to yell to be heard. He just talked to us because the 20 of us were gathered around him!

We took off, and very quickly I fell to the very back. I was running pretty fast at this point. When I looked, I was clocking under 9-minute miles. Yikes! That's fast for me. As great as it is to run fast, it makes you run out of steam pretty quickly.

I knew there was one man behind me. (It turns out he came in about 10 minutes after me, but he was also over 75-years-old!) Everyone else was in front of me and increasing the distance between us. I plodded along at a decent clip of about 10-minute miles making it to the turn around point (which is not the half-way point...so irritating!).

I knew I was struggling, but I couldn't figure out why. My legs weren't fatigued. My breathing was only slightly labored. So what was the problem? Was I that bothered by the fact that I was second to last? Was I just tired? Was it just a bad morning for no particular reason?

I don't know.

Whatever the reason, I was near tears and wanting to quit. My music was bugging me so I shut it off. I started taking short walk breaks and texting Eric. He was great at encouraging me through the last mile. Texting him actually helped me a lot because then I didn't feel so alone.

No matter what, my family is always supporting and encouraging me. Thank God for them.

I finally made it to the finish line.

Here's the ironic part: my time was better for this four mile race than it was a month ago for a four mile race I did then. I improved by about a minute. My average pace then was 10:51 and today it was 10:39.

Starting out super fast must have made up for the times I spent walking and sniveling to myself.



Yes, I won first place in my age group. Granted, I was the only female in my age group. But hey, it's not my fault other 36-year-olds didn't show up! First place is first place!

I need to work on keeping my attitude in check. And I need to not freak myself out before the race even starts. I need to pace myself better at the beginning. I need to be proud of what I have been able to accomplish in five months of running.

And now I need to rest!

P.S. We enjoyed an amazing brunch at Marie Callender's after the award ceremony. Yummers!

Distance: 4 miles/10:39 avg pace/42:xx time. Can't remember the time exactly.