pure exhilaration

So I am done with my very first 10K!!!!! And my first race since high school, which seems like a lifetime ago. It was pretty amazing, and emotional! Here's the play by play...

5:35 am - wake up! brush teeth, throw clothes on, check & double check that I have everything (but later find out that I forgot things of course)

6:00 am - out the door

6:20 am - arrive at North Dekalb Mall shuttles, scope out other racers to see what they are taking with them

6:25 am - go to McD's to use bathroom & sit with Ryan

6:50 am - get on the shuttle! say goodbye to Ryan. Have my race # pinned on and my gel & Sean's picture in my hand.

7:05ish am - shuttle leaves, meet a new person on the bus who actually went to high school with one of my sorority sister - small world!

7:20ish am - arrive at Tucker High school, warm up. Ran around the parking lot a couple times slowly, did some strides, stretched a lot. Met a cool dude, #3, so I knew he was a fast runner, probably one of the "famous" ones. His name was Sammy, he introduced himself to me, I was a little starstruck! Ryan told me he was definitely in the first 5 people to finish, I think in 30 minutes? When the race results are posted, I'll figure out his name. He asked me where I was from, wished me good luck etc.

7:35 am - done warming up. I walk back towards the high school entrance only to see floods of people leaving. I guess we are lining up at the start now!

7:45 am - and we're OFF!!! In that very moment, I realized why I love running, why I ran track so many years ago. It's just this rush of excitement I get. I wasn't even competing, I just wanted to run the whole thing, but there was still a pure, exhilarating joy in starting a race, starting something big, and oh yeah! Starting something that means a lot to me - a race in memory of my cousin Sean, who died from leukemia. Took a look at his picture and folded it into my hand to carry through the race.

7:56 am - Pass the 1st mile

8:06 am - Pass the 2nd mile, feet are starting to get wet! :(

8:15 am - Pass the 3rd mile, water table! Ok so I have never tried to drink water while running...BIG disaster! I took one sip and water went all over me. ALL over me. So I was like...forget this. Threw the water cup in the trash can (boo to all you runners who threw your cups on the street! That's littering! Be a responsible runner!!). Then took my PowerBar gel. Such a weeeeeird sensation. I just squeezed the gel into my mouth and then kinda slurped it down. The green apple flavor wasn't too bad! It kicked in pretty quickly, I definitely felt energized afterward.

8:27 am - Pass 4th mile. At this point I start seeing runners running BACK to the start line. What are you crazy?!?! They had run the whole 10K and turned around to run back to the start line. Sick! I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that! Also I think it was at this point that there was a tent set up with the music from Rocky blaring over speakers. Two guys were there cheering us on. I don't know if they were affiliated with the race or what but at this point I started tearing up. I just started thinking about Sean a lot, and of being a kid and all the things we did, playing together and everything. And what things would be like now if he were still alive. And how I just don't think of him enough, I was so young when he died. But do we ever think about the past and get those feelings out, those losses that we go through together?

8:39 am - Pass 5th mile. Worked through the verging tears :) Now I'm ready to be done!!!! Volunteers, police officers, all cheering us on. It was really awesome! And then...water table #2! I decide to try again, this time I got 2 sips in before I choked on the 3rd. I am definitely going to have to practice this drinking while running thing.

a litte before 8:50 am - Pass 6th mile. I forgot 10K was 6.2 miles for a second and started to get annoyed - where is the finish line!? Because after mile 5 I started to pick up the pace a little more and pass more people...ready to be done. But oh no, there was still .2 miles to go! Duh!

8:50:30 am - 6.2 miles DONE. AWESOME. There was Ryan just yards away from the chutes cheering me on, taking pictures, the tears start welling up again! I swear I was never this emotional at track meets. I run under the finish line - 1:05:30! I'm happy =) Ryan is there at the end of the finish chute. I don't really know what we said to each other, I was so overwhelmed with emotions. I can't even describe them, but they were some of the greatest feelings in the world.

Post-race - took a last look at my picture of Sean...he was there with me the whole time =) what a great experience, getting to run a race with him!