Leonardtown's annual Run for Hospice race is probably the biggest race in southern Maryland. This is only the second year that I ran it, and this year I brought Grayson with me. I intended to bring Landon too. He registered but was not feeling the run so I gave him the day off. It's hard to decide when to push your kids and when to just let it go. We did not make early packet pick up but had no problem parking and getting our bibs. This year there was a Photo Booth that Grayson and I jumped in. It was clear that I had no idea what I was doing, but Gman looks good! We got there about 45 minutes before race start so that we could have our #wearblue Circle of Remembrance. I got really choked up trying to lead the circle to remember those service members lost on the Global War on Terrorism on April 8th. The circle then gives the opportunity to share the names of members that we personally run for. I could hear my voice cracking as I read the prayer and said the names. It's really tough to think about the sacrifices of so many, but we should give honor where honor is due. My friend Kim and her husband Craig were there to run with me and thankfully they joined into the circle too. I managed to bump into Kerri right before the race too. She was a little disappointed to have to walk it this year, but I am impressed that she was out at all having just had surgery the day before. She was easy to spot in her #wearblue. As this is a small town race, I also ran into the sibling of one of my students. She was running her first 10K and I was confident that she would do well. (She won her age group). Her mom gave me some great compliments on how my teaching style meshes with her son's learning. She does not know how grateful that I was to receive them as I tend to spend many hours lately questioning my career choice. Thank you so much for the pick me up. |
As hometown races go, I started the race with Kim who had a watch malfunction and stepped aside to fix it. We bumped into Julie shortly thereafter who was having a wardrobe malfunction. Grayson took off ahead of me and I knew I couldn't keep pace with him. I settled into the race myself, getting comfortable with my pace, and trying to remember where the first mile marker was. I tried to limit my walk breaks to 30 seconds. This was a shorter race for me and I wanted to see if I could find some speed. I didn't find much, but was ok with that because I knew I had a half marathon scheduled for the next day. I kept thinking about the last words my parent said to her daughter, "Stay on your toes!" So I concentrated on landing mid foot. Interestingly, my rpms were higher for the second half of the race and I did have a negative split for the last mile. Around the next to the last turn I spotted another former student who was taking pictures of family members running in jeans. It gave me the motivation to keep going because you can't walk in front of a student and you can't be slower than someone running in jeans--that's impressive (maybe I should have students line my running courses, lol). The relatively flat course has several out and backs which let me check on Grayson and see how Kim and Julie were doing. Everyone seemed to be managing their paces well. I am so proud of Kim who finished just a few minutes behind me! If she had not had her Garmin issue she very well might have finished ahead of me. I know that Julie can beat me on any given day too. I was happy to see her smiling face out at the race! Thank you Hospice for all these free race photos that I found on their Facebook page. I hope to update with a few more pics that were taken before crossing the street back into the government center. Pictures of myself running are always eye opening! Seriously, what's up with the t-rex claw hands? Not to mention my serious issues with body image. Keep moving, keep building that self esteem. Posting them anyway, keep it real. Oh and food! I can't forget that there is always a great spread of food available after this race. Grayson enjoyed two hot dogs before we dashed off to Quadcopters!
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JK McDowellLong time back of the pack runner, science lover, Christian, educator, and mom. Archives
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