I'm a little late on posting about my race- no surprise there. Planning a race two days before market started for me maybe wasn't my brightest idea. Market is over, and I've logged 130 hours in the last 10 days.
But back to my race. I got 3rd! Out of... 160ish in my age group? I can't remember the actually number. And I got 22nd out of like 1500. So. Happy. My official time was 25:35. The girl who won finished with like 22 some minutes. This is the first race where I've not felt any regret for not trying my hardest. I set myself up with all the things I knew to do, and it paid off. God is so amazing. He gave so much much strength I never knew I had.
I heard a quote I really liked yesterday watching "Unbroken." They said "if you can take it, you can make it." No one made me do that race it go through all the struggles and sacrifices I went through. There's always going to be things we can avoid to make our lives easier. Being an athlete, starting a new business... Although things we put ourselves through aren't necessary, struggling for a little while can open your life to many more amazing opportunities than you ever thought possible.
I can't wait to race again. I really wanted to break into 24 minutes, and I came so close. So now I know I can come even closer next time. I haven't run since my race. The second day of market I sprained my ankle pretty badly, and on top of the sprain, I was carrying a really heavy box called a cambro (we use them to transport hot food and keep the food hot) and it fell on my ankle. Needless to say, over a week later I'm still pretty bruised. It really sucks having to go through market injured and being on my feet all day, but I can't tell you how grateful I am that I got to race the week before.
I know I'm never going to the Olympics, break a world record, or even run the Boston Marathon. The races I enter are still fairly small and don't actually mean anything. But to me, knowing that I can push myself to be better and beat my own times means everything to me. I was never an athlete in high school. I've found something finally that I'm relatively good at. You have to use your talents. For what's a sundial in the shade?
