This Saturday started out like every Saturday in the summer months; up at the crack of dawn and on the road.  Only this Saturday, I was up at 3:45 a.m. and by 4:45 a.m. we were on the road headed to Lafayette for a triathlon for Blake and Paul.  It was a good morning and relatively uneventful (sometimes this is a good thing).  They did well in the event and both brought home some “hardware” for their performances.  It was also a good morning for BR Tri and even though only a handful of us were there, the club was represented well.  

The entire day, I had a nagging thought in my mind…I would have to run the dreaded Twilight 5K in Baton Rouge.  I knew I would have a nice time SOCIALLY because I would be meeting, face to face for the first time, the rest of the our Running on Faith teammates.  On the flip side, I’ve always disliked the Twilight 5K and I’ve never had success with this race.  I’ve run it 3 times in the past, twice I had to stop and do the dreaded walk and the one time I didn’t stop to walk, it still took me some where around 42 minutes to complete.  Aside from the Hump Day 2 milers, this is the hottest race of the year.  I’m not quite sure why they call it the “Twilight” 5K because it’s run entirely in the daylight and even at 7:00 p.m., it’s still blazing hot.

I really felt like I would have a better run this year.  I’ve been logging a fair amount of miles and I’ve done most of them during the hottest times of the day.  Add that to the fact that my new buddies would be there and I really wanted to impress them (ha ha).  In the past, before this race started, I’d feel close to crying.  I didn’t have that problem this time because standing there with Christine, Marcelo, Louise, Tish, Mason and Lara really eased my anxiety and I was actually ready to start the race (I let everyone know that I don’t mind being passed and they should feel free to leave me behind)!  Paul and Tim were up front with the faster folks.

As the horn sounded, we all took off and made our own ways through the crowds.  I could see Christine and Louise pulling away from me rather quickly.  I had two choices, try to keep up with them or run the “Marci” pace.  I chose the latter because it just felt safer.  Halfway through, I lost sight of Christine but I did see Louise and I felt like I could catch her.  Wrong.  She would have little bursts of energy where she would run really fast and then ease off.   As I would close in on her, she would take off again! About ¼ mile away, I picked up my pace on the downhill run and turned the corner for the final stretch. When I saw the clock still had 31:30 on it I did something I’m not proud of; I sprinted by a co-worker on the last stretch and cut into her personal space a little bit.  She boxed me in on the left side, she had runners on the right side and Louise was just right there in front of her.  I didn’t pass Louise and I didn’t make it across the finish line in under 32:00 BUT 32:01 is good enough for me.  I will certainly make my apologies at work this week.

That wasn’t the best part of the evening though.  Hanging out by beer truck, drinking beer, eating jambalaya and getting to know my teammates was very enjoyable.  And maybe the best part is that Blake, Camren and Mason get along well so we didn’t have to entertain them. 

It was nice meeting Dara and I hope she signs up soon and joins our team.  I have a feeling she and I will get along very well.  By the way, did someone say we had another team mate by the name of Nancy???????

Just a quick update on our fundraising efforts; it is going well. Paul and I received a very nice anonymous donation this week that really touched our hearts especially when we realized they didn’t want recognition for it.

This is Flash and I am running on faith that all of the races and organized runs that are in my future as pleasant as the one I just did!

 

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