As I mentioned numerous times in the past, I'm a runner. I haven't been practicing my "art" as a runner for a bit over a year now because of the complainings of a rogue knee. So when Brandilyn said that she was participating in the Phoenix Marathon, I had to say this was too good to pass up. I wanna play too!
Well, power walking became my new game. I dusted off my trusty treadmill (well actually Jeff did) and went to work. I was booking it and felt pretty good about my progress. When I told Skip that I was going to walk the 10K he said, "Well then, what's the point of doing it?" What? To get back in the game, Homie! To feel the energy of runners! To relive my . . . youth?
Today was race day. I honestly wasn't nervous. I was pretty sure that I would be finishing dead last and even that didn't bother me much (well, okay, it did). I told Brandilyn that it wouldn't bother me if she took off out ahead of me (she didn't).
We started off at a slow jog and continued on that vein for about two miles. We were passing a LOT of people (good for the ego). Finally, fearful that I would blow out that knee of mine, I said that I needed to break it down to a power walk. Brandilyn was agreeable and walked for about three nano seconds and then decided that a slow jog beside my walk was just fine for her. To her credit she didn't walk the rest of the way (applause for that!).
Oh, people passed us but I wasn't too concerned. We passed quite a few peeps - and a LOT of them were running (jogging). It felt good to round the final corner and look back to a lot of participants behind us. Brandilyn then said, "Come on, Mom. The finish line is just up ahead. Let's run the last little bit!" I couldn't let my baby girl down so I complied.
I have to say the old adage, "slow and steady wins the race" held true for us tortoise girls today. Team Tortoise rocked it! We averaged a 12:26 pace. Not bad - not my PR, but not bad for someone who hasn't done this for 25 years, right?
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