In the early morning hours of June 2nd we rode as a family to what would be my first official race after I rediscovered running in February of 2019. A race to benefit a local school. While, not a huge race it was still the first time I was going to compete. Real talk: I’m very competitive and was not quite sure what I was capable of doing beyond a training run.

As my husband drove, our three year old and five year old were in the back seat. They peppered me with questions. How far was I going to run? Could they run too? Wasn’t it too hot to run? How long would it take me to finish? And on and on. Then the question of all questions from our oldest, “You’re going to win the race, right Mommy?” I admired his confidence in my abilities. At 37 years old, having not run for nearly twenty years and having just started running again three months before, winning was the farthest thing from my mind and certainly not on my radar. My goal was to finish in 30 minutes. Based upon my training runs that seemed like a reasonable outcome. My response, “Well, Mommy is going to try her very best but she’s definitely not going to win.” My son struggled with this response, how could I do my best and my best not be good enough to win?

We arrived at the school and instantly the wave or pre-race nervousness came upon me. Anyone else familiar with feeling like you need to go to the bathroom one hundred times before a race starts even though you just went and certainly do not have to go again??

It was hot that morning and I was really concerned with overheating. Even though I had no expectations, let’s be real I had expectations for my finish. The horn sounded and we were off. There was one female runner ahead of me and I stayed with her as long as possible. Rather than drink at the water stations I was pouring water on myself to try to cool off. I ran harder than I had imagined. While, I lost sight of the first female I continued to push through the run, surprising not only myself but others who didn’t know I could “run like that.” As I came around the corner to the finish, my boys were waiting and beyond excited. They started running along side me as I came across the finish line. Time: 26:57. Much better than my goal of 30 minutes. It was good for a second overall female finish and to win my age category. My son’s response “see Mommy, I told you you were going to win.”

What did I learn?

• This was the first of what would become many races. I had the running bug. I loved the feeling of having a great race and knew I wanted to do it again.
• Shortly after the race I proudly posted my race results. I’m a runner, it’s what we do, we share our results. If we don’t share our results, did the run or race happen??? A family friend who is a physician pointed out my average heart rate was high. I knew I had worked hard and it was hot that morning but I hadn’t paid much attention to my heart rate. After that comment I pay careful attention during everyone run.