This race was a total touchdown!!!

15 Races since January 2016, what was I thinking.  Well I was thinking that every race will hopefully get easier.  That every pound I lose will allow me to run better, faster and longer.  I was hoping just that with this race, that I would do better than my last race, whether that be in time, endurance or just how I felt at the end.

So first I have to admit I had no idea who this LT is, I know I live in San Diego I should know these things. But as I got to the race it was obvious that he had a pretty big fan base.  This I am going to say right off the bat was a very well organized race from the packet pick up to the booths that were at the race venue.  I was pretty impressed with the setup and could not wait to run the race.

As I said they have several vendors there with one of them being Rock105.3 a Radio Station in San Diego.  I stopped by the booth and got talking to the guys that were there.  They asked the general question was this my first race, silly silly boys you opened that can of worms.  They were so nice to listen to my story of my journey and I really appreciated that they asked questions and were generally interested in what I was saying.  We did get on the subject of a recent challenge that was going on and that was 22 pushup for the 22 veterans that kill themselves each day.  Jokingly I challenged them to drop and give me 20, without hesitation and with an exclamation of anything for the veterans they did.  Now they did suggest I join them, and not to back away from a challenge I did.  What was I thinking I have not done a pushup since high school.  I will say I did pretty well until about 11 and then struggled to 15 then did the 15, 21, 22.  They were such good sports and I would listen to that radio station now because of my interaction.

The race got under way after a fun warm up with warm up guy..sorry wish I knew his name as he has been at a lot of the races I have done.  This race was at Liberty Station a popular course for local races.  I knew the race course pretty well so I got going.  I was able to keep up running without stopping for just short of 2 miles.  But the walking I did during this race was cumulative about 3 mins.  I was really happy with this run and when I crossed the finish line it is the best time I had 34:16 I could not believe this.  Once I saw how I did I really got emotional, I was becoming a runner, me the one who could give you a dozen excuses why I could not run.  While waiting for the official results on the time trailer( which I am learning to love!) I got talking to a young lady Trisha Turner still in high school who was also waiting for results.  She was a little more excited than I was, as she had won the race, she was just waiting for it to be official.  Her aunt was there with her and we got talking.  She was just getting ready to turn 53 and her niece was telling me she had run the Boston Marathon 4 times ( her niece said this with such pride) 4 Times!.  I made my the comment I always do “I could never run the Boston Marathon” and very bluntly she said why.  For the first time I could not think of a good excuse or a valid reason other that I could never do that.  Not that I am looking at doing that race but for once in my life I realized that I can do anything I want to do.

So 42 pounds gone, 15th race complete and I placed 14th in my age group and still on this journey to a healthier me….What Next?