This weekend was our town celebration. I live in a small town, population 509. Celebration weekend is a time to reconnect with high school classmates and walk down memory lane. We had the typical kid games in the park, a parade, dance and fireworks, as well as, the famous Messy Bessy. What is Messy Bessy? A local farmer brings one of their cows to town for the evening. The cow hangs out in a fenced in area on mainstreet with white squares marked on the pavement. You buy a square to guess where the cow will poop and win a few bucks. That's right we sit around and wait for a cow to poop!
Of course the best event happens early Saturday morning, the race! The 5k distance happens to be my least favorite distance. Give me a half marathon or marathon where you can settle into a pace and it really doesn’t get uncomfortable until the end, with a 5k the whole darn thing feels terrible.
As I laced up my shoes Saturday morning I thought that maybe I should've put my money towards Messy Bessy rather than the 5k. This torture run is still an opportunity to run and I do LOVE to run. Of course it would feel better if I ran slower but if I'm going to race I will always push myself to do my best. The start whistle blew and I was off at my goal pace. The first mile felt great! I could see my husband's classmate ahead of me and decided he was my pacer. He's always been a fast runner and I thought why not try to keep up?
I only had one name on my arm to pray for, I pray for people throughout the miles that I run, a co-worker's brother passed away and his funeral was that morning too. I thought of the family and how hard it would be to have a sibling pass away. Mile 3 was HARD. I find that my runs reflect the burdens that I pray for, so it was not a surprise to feel the pain during the last mile.
With the finish line in sight I saw my time, a new personal record! I ran one minute faster than my previous personal record. My daughter was also running, so I went back out on the course. I figured I had 10 minutes or so until she finished but saw her cruising down the last tenth of mile. She was struggling with a side-ache but wanted to finish in under 30 minutes. Pushing through the pain she made her goal and had a new personal record too!
Throughout the weekend I had conversations friends and acquaintances, many of our conversations turned to running. In high school I despised running and the furthest I had ever run was 2 miles. Funny how things can change. Reminiscing with friends and learning how their lives have changed too was a highlight of the weekend. Until next year Class of 96!
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