Finish Lines

Today was race day -- in all its forms. Well, two of them anyway.

The Desperate Housewives of Blue Jay Drive were back in action. This was not a planned event. This was not something we trained for. This was a Friday afternoon, "Hey, there's a race tomorrow in Nekoosa. You wanna do it?" type thing.

Cindy is nursing a foot/ankle injury of some kind so Niki and I had to take one for the team. And Carter decided to go along, too. With cross country right around the corner, he better start somewhere.

 

The Nekoosa Swiftwater Fun Run had two options: A 2-mile run or a 5-miler. Without hesitation, we signed up for the 2-mile. One of Carter's buddies did the 5-mile run because he did not take the summer off from training like some people I know. Though, I shan't cast stones...

I have never done a 2-mile race and it intimidated me. Sounds like a quick sprint for fast runners. When I am low on training miles in my tank, I struggle trying to run fast for 5Ks. And the word "fast" is relative. Based on my recent return to running/walking every other day, I for sure wanted to finish in 22 minutes and would have been ecstatic with 20 minutes (10-minute miles).

I also kind of hoped I could beat Carter. But even though he has run only 4 times this past month maybe, he kicked my butt. As he should! C'mon, he's 30 years younger! Still, he was up against the fast Nekoosa cross-country runners and they always dominate this. He finished in the top 10 in his age group. And there weren't quite 10 runners. I guess he has to start somewhere.

I ran faster than I normally do. When my time at the 1-mile turnaround was 9:37, I was like "Whoa, that's gonna kill me on the way back." But I don't know. I just kept going and breathing... and was determined to pass these two 8-year-old boys who I was not going to let beat me!

We all have our motivation.

When I was in the last quarter mile and saw that clock had an 18 in front of it, I was never more surprised and kicked it as hard as my rubbery legs could go and finished under 19 minutes. I think 18:54 was the official time. That's about 9 1/2-minute miles and not something I've done. I was pretty proud of myself -- though slightly bummed I was edged out of a third-place medal by 25 seconds! But you know, in a 2-mile race, 25 seconds is a lot of time to cut! So I was happy. (They did accidentally call my name for second place in my age division... but that was for men. Ha. Seriously. That made even more happy I beat some "old" men, too!)

Niki, who is in a younger age group than me, took home a third-place ribbon for her run. So we were all happy, except Carter. We may have to start a Desperate Kids of Blue Jay Drive team next!

Later today, we switched to a different kind of racing. We went up to Marshfield to see our nephew Colin race his super late model stock car. Due to rain-outs and other commitments, this was the first time I got to see him in action this summer. We rode up with Jim's parents so we had a good cheering section for #87.

He qualified third fastest in time trials then won the 4-lap "Dash for Cash" race. That was great to see him take the first checkered flag of the night. But then he went downhill a bit after that and was not in the running for any more hardware -- for tonight anyway.

Races were short so we actually got home in time to join some friends down the road for a campfire. It is just chilly enough (again) that it is great fire weather. Of course, I am double dipping on the heat and have my mattress pad on, too. Should sleep good.

And considering it's 1:30 in the morning, I'm guessing I might cross that sleep finish line first!