Humble Half

This weekend was the inaugural City of the Palms Half Marathon.  Scott and I were looking for a race to keep us motivated, and this distance and the location felt right.  Running almost anytime in this southwest region of Florida is hot and usually humid.  This blog post is not to complain about those “captain obvious” facts.  This blog post reflects how humbling this race was for me.

Back to the “captain obvious” facts.  First, I was under trained.  Once again, I had high hopes, created a training calendar, and then peetered out when it came to the actual training part.  Secondly and related to the first, I was beaten by the heat.  Half way through the race, my melt-fest was in high gear and I began to feel like I was running through molasses.  The combination of lackluster training and full sun and heat found me grappling with rare mid-race calf and toe cramps from mile 10 through the finish. 

I finished with Scott screaming my name and catching my finish on video.  I found Scott (who won his age group!!) and we cheered friend Erin’s finish.  A mountain dew and a bag of chips helped me quickly feel more like myself, and a bee sting at the finish made me forget about the calf pain!

Also at the finish was Jeannie Rice, a local 70 year old runner who a) kicked my butt, and b) continues to kick butts all over the place!  She set an age group world record at 2018 Chicago Marathon as part of her amazing repertoire of running accomplishments. 

Once reunited with Erin, we cheesed for the camera with our over-sized medals and waited for Scott to collect his age group award.  As we started the trek to our cars, we noticed a runner finishing - dressed in full firefighter equipment!  Several of us stopped to cheer her finish and awarding of her finisher’s medal. 

I was humbled the fact that after more than 30 years, Scott is still my biggest cheerleader.  I was humbled by the woman who ran 13.1 miles in full firefighter equipment.  I was humbled by witnessing Jeannie Rice’s continued success as a runner – and breaking age barriers one race at a time.  I was humbled by the runners around me who were battling the same miles and heat I was.  

So as hot as I felt, the firefighter runner's layers of clothing and equipment had me beat.  At 52 years old, I got my butt handed to me by a woman twenty years my senior.   I was humbled by my own body and mind, that even though I gave less than I asked for, both showed up and got me through the race.  

And the bee sting?  I'll survive.