The best run

Today started out pretty rough for my 5k run preparation.

I tried to go to sleep at 10pm, wake up at 6am, and leave the house around 7:20 for the race that starts at 8am. I had everything planned.

The problem started in bed in the darkness. I couldn’t go to sleep. My body went in and out of wakefulness. I was half sleeping and half hallucinating from reality. By midnight, I gave into my now fully awaken brain and hoped that melatonin would send me back to sleep somehow. It still took an hour and a half to kick in and I fell into artificial rest. Melatonin is a hit or miss for me. Usually it gives me the weirdest dreams. This time I completely blacked out, and I’m grateful for being spared the mental workout in the dreamland.

At 6:30am I woke up. I was worried that I didn’t have ideal sleep time, but there was nothing I could do. At least I had packed my clothing and running gear the night before to save time in the morning. After a quick breakfast of one hard boiled egg, warm water, and half a banana, I drove over to the race site. There was a lot of people there, both runners and supporters. It was quite the festive event. It helped me get all pumped up in the vibe. I was alone, but I knew I had family coming to see me finish, so I was happy to have their presence (in advance).

The race started with a bit of traffic jam with runners starting to run and not run into the people in front of them. I turned on my running app that records how fast I am running per mile but turned off the sound so it wouldn’t influence my running along the way. A ton of people ran with me, past me, ahead of me. The new scenery of this much influx of people on the open road with cars zipping by a few feet away from me and rows of large trees and overcast sky with a low layer of mist stimulated me. It was just the right kind of distraction to indulge in for running. I don’t usually listen to music when I run or any sound that is unnatural to my immediate surroundings. I usually listen to the wind, the trees, the animals, the neighbors, or myself breathing or thudding or counting numbers in my head. It was fun listening to other people (so many people) do what I was doing but keeping my own rhythm centered.

My goal was to not stop running. Keep running all the way to the finish line no matter what. I saw some people starting to walk after the first downhill section. I told myself “just keep push a little more and be steady.”

The race volunteers who cheered the runners on were mostly kids. Probably middle school or high schoolers. It was so cute to see them be the cheerleaders for all of us. There were a multiple police officers around every half mile or so who helped cars pass through the runner traffic and keep the road clear for the runners in general. I wasn’t expecting to see this much formality, but it makes sense for the sake of public safety.

I noticed myself making someone in front of me as a benchmark to catch up to. This young girl with braided pigtails ran in a similar pace as me but slightly faster. I still don’t know where the competitiveness came from, but I tried to pass her without overdoing myself. She didn’t know it, but I had my eyes on her. It took a few steady minutes to run next to her. I pushed a little more to get ahead of her. I felt great when I couldn’t see her anymore even at the corner of my eyes and saw her shadow grow shorter. I easily forgot about her for a little while. When the next uphill came, I struggled slowed a bit. I noticed the pigtail girl pass by me. I wasn’t sad or disappointed. It was just what it was. I set her as my target again to keep moving and pushing. Eventually I passed her and never saw her in front of me again. At the same time, I made whoever was in front of me and was running decently similar to me as my next benchmark and moved along. A black woman. A pair of mother and son. A white man. A little girl who walked in front of me. I had so many options, and I naturally made them mine.

The water station showed up at half way point. I had never drank mid run before, but I always wanted to try the water from watching runner YouTubers. They also said how important the water intakes were and to take advantage of them, so that’s another reason why I did. It was quite hard to drink and run at the same time. The half-full cups were smart move on the organizer, because otherwise I would have spilled most of it anyway. I could only drink two gulps down the throat, and it still got caught at the pipes that I had to cough the water out the air pipe. I don’t know how marathoners drink water without choking. Probably sometime I will have to learn as I run races more.

The 1 mile mark and 2 mile mark showed up more slowly than I expected. This part was probably the more painful and impatient part. I looked ahead of me and saw the row of runners like ants on the rolling hills between the cars and the houses and thought I had been running long enough. When the mile signs didn’t show up when I expected them, I felt discouraged. I kept my head down to focus on my immediate next steps and take my attention away from hitting those marks for some time.

The way I internalized my relationship with the mile marks was in parallel to my relationship with my life at a decade. At the 1st mile mark, I looked back at the things I had done so far. At the 2nd mile mark (which didn’t show up for a while), I was happy to see it finally and maybe this is what it is like to close the 20s’ life. I don’t think I saw the 3rd mile mark because the race was 5k (3.1miles). I just had the finish line to look forward to at that point. After the 2nd mile mark, I wondered what more strenuous surprises awaited me in my 30s and onward.

I turned the final corner of the trail and saw the finish line. A crowd of people on either side of me looking at me and the rest of the runners. I savored the attention. Even though I was just surrounded my hundreds of other people running with me, we were on our own journey. Seeing that crowd felt like I was receiving some kind of bigger scale communal support. It felt great to be the receiver of such attention from those people even for those seconds that I was finishing up the race.

I found the timer at the left side of the finish line. 30:20! That’s my personal best record by far! I usually run a 5k in 38-40 minutes. I smiled. I couldn’t believe how fast I had run, consistently at that too. It was amazing. (Later I saw the record on my running app that I had run a consistent 9 minutes and 40 ish seconds every mile. I was so steady, and my jaw dropped and stayed there for a while.) Right before the last few feet before the finish line, I decided to give it a final spurt and sprinted toward the blue line on the ground and the ballooned up arch. I found a medal guy on the right as I slowed down and grabbed one. I was hoping to see the medals come with names engraved, but there wasn’t any. That was ok. I had my trusty old sharpie to pen in my name and time for now.

My family came to find me from the crowd and congratulated me. Sweaty and nasty and happy, I thanked them for coming. I was really happy to have them come to see me run and cheer me on. They even got a video of me finishing with the timer in the back. I was so grateful to have them at my very first race (since school).

I’m sure the adrenaline and running in such excited environment with pumped up people helped me run really well today. It was such a great experience. I personally don’t know if I got a runner’s high during the running, but I digress. My official run time from the race organizer came in later in the afternoon via email. My finish time read 30 minutes and 4 seconds. I was and still am extremely happy with the record. This was an awesome experience, and I am so grateful for having this piece of memory to cherish.

I look forward to my next races and more running in between.