When I finished my first race in May 2016, I joked with my husband that I should run five 5K's before my 35th birthday. Over the last few weeks, I've posted about my second and third races that were mostly coincidental. With my entry into those races, it was almost as though life was placing these neatly wrapped opportunities in front of me. The same can almost be said about my fourth race, too. My neighbor won an entry to a race through the same contest that I won my entry for the Torchlight 5K. The day after I ran the Super Run, she found out that she won her entry, and she basically asked me if I would run with her so she didn't have to go alone. At least that's how I remember it. In any case, I just happened to have a discount coupon from running the Torchlight 5K, so I took advantage of that and on July 25th, I signed up for the Esprit de She.
I actually had the opportunity, and surprisingly the motivation, to run three times between the Super Run and the Esprit. I was at the point where I was actually excited to be running another race with my neighbor, though, I still didn't think I was at the point where I could keep up with her.
The Esprit de She was on August 4th. My neighbor drove us to Maple Grove where we had to park and take a shuttle to the finish line and then walk the short distance to the starting line. While the race wasn't quite as large as the Torchlight, it was definitely an energetic atmosphere. We went to the pavilion area to get our wristbands (for the alcohol after the race), and we began our trek to the starting line. As we walked, we stopped to get an official pre-race photo. We stretched a bit, found our pace group (10:30 min/mile–an improvement from the Torchlight), and waited for the race to start.
For almost the entire course, she was at least 100 meters in front of me, though, there were times that I lost track of her completely. I wasn't really concerned with where she was because I wanted to focus on me. I did my best to run the whole 3.1 miles, and if I recall correctly, I was successful. As I neared the finish line, I saw my neighbor. That got my adrenaline pumping! I had spent the entire race lagging behind her, and here I was less than 200 meters from the finish, and I was within distance of catching her! My legs sped up and I flew around the last two corners; she didn't even see me coming.
I ended up crossing the finish line one second ahead of her, but because of when she started the race, we actually ended up with the same exact time of 34:36 (although my official race time is 34:37). I don't claim to be a math whiz, but when I started the race at 6:42:21 PM and finished the race at 7:16:57 PM, I'm pretty sure that I finished the race in 34:36. But, whatever. It was a personal record all the same.
I had now run four races in slightly over two months. I was determined to run a fifth race before I turned 35, and since my birthday was still nine months away, I was pretty confident I could make it work. And since I'm writing about it, I bet you can deduce that I was successful. So, you can read about my fifth race next time.
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