Whaling Days Race Results

I’d like to thank the lady in the orange shirt for giving me reason to push beyond reasonable limits and reach 95% of my heart rate maximum for I don’t know how long, but it was long enough that I felt my throat starting to… to… close up.

“Orange Shirt” and I kept playing a little game of “I’m ahead, no you’re ahead”… until the hill. Then she was ahead and I let her be because I knew if I didn’t manage the hill well then it’d be bad. The hill was early in mile 2. Somewhere in mile 3 I spied OS again.

Had I not been so serious onto-her orange shirt-ness, I’d have done a little jig. Instead I chanted, “Bring it in, run tight… stop flopping your head Jenny! Keep it tight, girl!” I passed OS somewhere in mile 3, and then early in mile 4 she passed me.

Drats. I panted in my head, “I’m too tired for this crap!”

 

I then began to visualize my running partner, Katie. She is always a stride or two ahead. I kept looking towards my Imaginary Katie and pushing a little more to keep up with her. I rounded a corner with my Imaginary Katie and saw OS. Oh yes – O.S.

 

Then Kanye West’s song “Stronger” started playing in my head. My head told me, “Girl, you ain’t even close to killed. Turn it up. Turn it up!” So I accepted my own selfs’ call-out and turned it up. The gap began to close between me and OS.

Game. On. So I pushed more.

 

We rounded the corner with, say, a quarter mile to go.

 

Now, I am NOT a sprinter, nor am I big on a hard final push. I need Katie, but I didn’t have Katie. But I did have: Kanye, OS, and Imaginary Katie. I passed OS with a few hundred yards to go. I never looked back, but I could feel the space between us growing (note: me in front, her not in front).

 

I crossed the finish and was so a-dither with regaining an fully-open air space I never saw when OS came through. But, OS, if you ever read this – thank you. There’s nothing like a good competitor for a good race. I usually refer to these things as “events” not “races”, but I feel that on Saturday… I raced.