As usual, I won’t keep you in suspense because what’s the point? My goal was to get in the lower half of 35 and I snuck in with 35:28, so yay! 2nd in 40-49 AG, 12th female and 97th out of 1119 runners.

I’ve never done this race though it’s in the usual major race location for Philly, a mere 3/4 mile from my doorstep, so at 8:15 I walked/jogged over to the museum, got my bib, did my 1 mile warmup with some strides (both of which always seem slower on race morning for some reason) and returned to the crowd.

Happiness Is: When the race director shouts into his bullhorn “7 minute milers line up” and I get to join this group so close to the front, composed overwhelmingly of men, without feeling like I’m too far up or in someone’s way…that I belong. That was worth the price of admission right there.

Race starts. My first mile isn’t so hot, 7:10, though it’s in that first mile that a girl in a light blue top comes up from behind and becomes my bungee cord for the race, keeping me on track throughout.

Mile 2 – 7:08. Still not optimal.

Mile 3 includes the turnaround point with another clock (they had them at each mile) and I see that my goal isn’t looking good, which is tough because I already feel like I’m pushing hard and am worried about my limits. 7:07

Mile 4 I end up behind two guys running together. As mentioned before, I hate my breathing when racing – I hear myself wheeze and know others can too. So I’m behind these guys for a while and at one point one turns to look at me and I say, “sorry about the breath”. Both the guys go, “oh, no don’t worry about it, it’s fine” which was very sweet, but still it’s so frustrating, because the only time I hear anyone breathe like me is in the first mile or so of a race where someone is about to die from having gone out too hard. Oh well, just something to hate about my racing self. Good news is, I picked it up, 7:02.

Mile 5, I pushed. That’s it. I was dying and my Garmin had been giving me weird average lap paces for the last couple miles (from 6:42-6:54) so I ignored the bogus numbers, and just hoped that last mile was somewhere close to 7:00. It was – 7:01. Diving into the finish, the clock turned over at 35:28 and blissfully, I was done.

I sat on the grass awhile, then got some fruit and water, walked around and looked at people, asked a kid about his Luna Racers and the kid was so sweet, he took one off to show me how light it was (I might follow Doggie and buy a pair because man, they are light!), I saw the girl in light blue and thanked her for helping me out and then just hung out on my own waiting for awards. I got a nice silver medal, stuck around for the rest of the awards, then walked home, satisfied and happy.

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