Lake Lowell Marathon

Ha ha, Gotcha!  Ain't no way that I ran a marathon this morning!  I did however run the 10k at the Lake Lowell Marathon and it was awesome!  Cold, windy, but great!  I set out this morning with a goal of beating my last 10k time (62 minutes and someodd seconds, stupid timer being down!) and HOPEFULLY finishing the race in under an hour.  I wasn't sure that I could do it, but I know that I get pumped up with races, being around people, and frankly, I don't like people passing me.  So despite some mean hills on the back half of the race I finished those 6.2 miles in 56 minutes and 40 seconds!  I could hardly believe it!  Way to just shatter a goal, right!?!  I finished 5th overall for the ladies and 2nd in my age group, though you see here they gave me the first place ribbon since the woman that beat me in our age group won overall.  I'm thrilled!

 A couple of random thoughts; first, I ran into my next door neighbor at the race.  I had no idea that she had been training.  She also has 2 kids that are about my girls' ages, but I'm no good at making friends so we don't talk much.  It was fun to see her though, we talked a lot, and I might just have a running buddy now!  Second, I'm getting past my runner insecurities.  When I went to pick up my race packet I was, of course, asked what distance I would be doing.  I said "Just the 10k" right as the girl next to me said "the full marathon."  I felt like an impostor there for a minute.  Like I was some wimpy little runner trying to infiltrate this elite group of "real runners" and that bothered me.  It wasn't anything that anyone else said, just my own insecurites.  Then I got to thinking, I'm running 6.2 miles, there is nothing wimpy about that!  Most people I know would keel over at the thought of running that far!  I may not be a marathoner (yet), but dang it, I am a runner!  I'm no poser, I've earned it!

Oh, and remember how I was looking for ideas for something to do with my race bibs and such, well thanks to Pinterest, I found the perfect idea!  But you know me, I don't buy stuff, I make it!  So I went outside and cut myself a board from Tyson's pile of scrap wood, sanded it down, primed, painted, stuck on some vinyl, screwed in some hook and Voila!  I added hooks to the bottom for medals and such, if, you know, I even get the guts to sign up for a longer run.