Race for the Cure - my "Runiversary"

A year ago on Mother's Day, I ran my first race ever - the Race for the Cure 5k.  I finished in 32 minutes and change, and after that first race, I was hooked.  I've been a runner ever since.  And today I ran the Race for the Cure again.  It wasn't my best race, though I beat my previous 5k time by maybe 30 seconds, but it was a good race because it gives me the chance to think about the past year and all that I've been able to accomplish.  It's hard for me to remember that it's really only been a year that I've been running, and in that year I've run three 5k's, three 10k's, three half marathons, and a full marathon.  That's 10 races, after having never run a race in my life.  After never having run faster than a 10 minute mile or farther than 3 miles on the treadmill (and thinking I was pretty hot stuff when I did that in college, probably because most of my friends weren't working out at all).

I think it was March of last year that I signed up for the Race for the Cure, thereby giving myself a reason to get out and run.  Or more like something to hold me accountable.  People were sponsoring me, I had to run it, and my goal last year was to finish it and feel good at the end.  And I did.  I was immeasurably proud of myself for finishing the race, I was high on the feeling of having run with so many people and crossing a finish line with a clock and a time and everything.  Last May I weighed more than 20lbs more than I do now, running 3 miles was a lot, and the idea that I could ever do more was a fantasy.

In the year I've been running, I've had fabulous races - last year's Great Race, which I ran faster than I ever thought I could have, and last weekend's Pittsburgh Half Marathon, which was probably the closest to a perfect race that I've ever gotten - and I've had miserable and unpleasant races - the Just a Short Run Half Marathon comes to mind, as well as the miserable Burgh's Pizza and Wings 10k that I did two weekends ago - and races that were just kind of mediocre and "meh", like today's 5k and last year's Run Around the Square 5k.  I have to remember just how new I am to running and racing every time I have a less than stellar performance, remind myself that there are still a lot of lessons I obviously have to learn and a lot of ways that I can improve how I train and how I race.  The fabulous races make me feel over the moon, the bad ones make me want to hang up my running shoes and just give up, but I'm starting to see that they're both equally valuable because of the lessons they teach me.  I'm getting better at dusting myself off after the bad ones, too.

Happy Runiversary to me!  I'll do the Race for the Cure next year, too, and my goal is to shave another minute off my time, at least.  But should I fail to do that, there are still things that I'll take away from the race, but hopefully another year of running with make me older and wiser, and just plain better.