The rain began to fall about two minutes into the race, a somewhat welcome relief to the stifling humidity. Dry shoes and socks soon became soggy, as I blinked away the rain from my eyes. The sounds of cheering bystanders, cowbells, and bands intermingled with the trump, trump of hundreds of feet hitting the pavement–we’d completed our first mile; only 12.1 to go. The start is always easy.

The next five miles went by quickly…but then my knees began to hurt…and I felt a blister forming on my foot. I entertained the idea of stopping, but, as always, the thought that I’d have to walk back one way or another goaded me on. That, and the fact that I didn’t want to give up…I really wanted to give this race my best shot, despite my less than stellar training method. So I followed the ponytail in front of me and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 with my soaked feet squishing in my shoes I had a strange thought: “I think I’m actually enjoying this.” Which, was a first for me…I can’t recall ever enjoying running a race…just finishing it. Not long after that I saw Milla and Brad cheering from the sidelines, which was a another nice surprise.

At mile number 11 I began to think of Secretariat running his race, just when I needed something to help me pick up the pace. Lame, I know, and perhaps odd, but it distracted me from thinking about my aching body. By mile 12, I knew the end was in sight, and I tried to get my legs to move faster, but they were very slow to respond. And then I saw Jay, and before I knew it, I was going around the corner to the finish line. And then it was over–success! Despite not finding the right pace group (something to do with a 30-minute wait for a bathroom right before the race), I managed to keep to a less than 9 minute/mile pace to finish in under 2 hours (goal number four for 2010), 1:56:41 specifically. I was really not sure I was going to make it, so that was a nice surprise.

Jay snapped this photo near the finish line waiting for me.

And here I was moving so quickly he didn’t even have time to focus the camera.

Finished! (And looking like a drowned rat)

We’ll see if I go for it again next year…