The medal is mine!!! I have never been so happy over a little plastic looking medal, but honestly I am. So I guess I gave it away, but yes, I got the medal, and I ran a personal record (PR) for my 5k. So here is how it went.
I slept great last night, but I woke up around 5:15 am, and couldn't go back to sleep. I wasn't thinking about the race, but I had a lot of work stuff that was going on in my head. I know deep down that I was thinking about the race though... so I went upstairs and watched SportsCenter for the next hour or so. Around 7 am, I got ready and left the house for the race.
When I got there, there was a good crowd of people at the south side of Raymond James Stadium. I would estimate that there was around 1500 people that showed up for the race. Just a guestimate... maybe a little more or less... I found Cheryl (the Office Manager at the clinic that I work at), who was there with her 3 sons (21 year old triplets) in which 2 of them were competing in the race. They are fast as lightning so I kidded them that I would trip them before the start of the race so I could beat them. Their goal was to finish in the top 10 in the race, but they told me that there were some pretty fast people out there today (I guess they know all the fast people, because they ran cross country in high school). So anyways about 10 minutes later, we lined up for the start of the race. Spurlock, the BUCS player that ran back the first kickoff return for a TD, said some pep talk stuff before the race, and then we got ready. I was at the front, but all the way to the outside of the starting line. Again, my goals was to break 21:00 and get a medal, and once the gun went off, I just saw so many people sprint way out ahead of me, and I was just like whoa.... It felt like about 200 people just sprinted fast out of the gates, and they weren't letting up at all. I was pretty nervous, my legs felt weak, and I felt like my breathing wasn't normal... I'm just not used to racing and I have to get myself comfortable with racing.... it's so different than just doing my training runs by myself. I knew I was ok, just hopefully it would all go away soon. I passed a few people during the 1st mile, but a decent amount of people passed me also. I got to the 1st mile split in 6:38. So far so good... but could I keep that up??? During the 2nd mile, at least 1/2 of it was run on the practice field of 1 BUC Place. That was pretty cool. Even though I felt a bit winded, I felt like I could probably keep it up, but I ran it slower than the 1st mile. I think it was like 6:42. At that point all I had was a little over a mile left, and I knew what my splits were, and I felt as though the 21:00 goal was probably going to happen. The bad thing was that it seemed as though there were so many people in front of me, that I thought I had no shot at getting the medal. I definitely did not think I was in the top 100. So I figured, why not just go for it.... when I knew I had around 3/4 mile left, I just tried to start picking off people. Unfortunately I wasn't able to pass anyone until about 1/2 mile left, but after that I probably passed around 6 or 7 people, which was pretty cool. Then we went through the tunnel, and ran towards the 50 yard line..... I gave it all I had for those last 50 yards or so.. and I finished...... in my best time ever.... 20:17!!!! I think... When I looked up at the clock, it said 20:15, but when I stopped my Garmin after I finished, my watch said 20:17.... so let's go with 20:17. Anyway you look at it, I was absolutely floored. I actually crossed the finished and once I stopped and looked at my watch, I was just so pumped at how good I did, and how I felt.... As I started to walk, a guy gave me a card and said... go pick up your medal!!!!! I was so happy!!!!! I was the 79th male to finish the race, so that was awesome. I promise at some point this weekend, I will take a pic of the medal, and post it on here, but right now my kids are fighting over who is wearing it, so I'm not going to burst their bubble right now. I will get it from them when and if they actually take a nap today. As for Stephen and Billy(Cheryl's kids), they finished 11th and 12th overall with a time of 16:59 and 17:10 respectively..... fast as the wind!!!! Billy got his personal record for a 5k, so congrats to him also. All in all, a great morning for me, and that is one race time, that I am extremely proud of.
Ok, I'm gonna go chill, watch some sports and play Xbox with Arjay....
Later.....
