Take 5 in the Garden Race

     This past Saturday, I ran the Take 5 in the Garden of the Gods race.  It is part of the summer series that I am doing.  I have never ran this particular race before, but my brother has and warned me it is a very difficult course.  The race basically starts with a steep 1/2 mile hill.  In preparation, my brother and I have been going to Garden of the Gods every Saturday for the last month.  As part of our workout we would run this hill three times in a row.  It was a killer workout and probably one of the hardest I have ever done.  I am weird and actually don't mind hills that much.  While the workouts were killer, I could immediately tell they were making me a much stronger runner.  Hill workouts are paramount for any runner looking to get faster. 
    As usual, as the race got closer I started experiencing a lot of self doubt.  I was so disappointed in my efforts on St. Patrick's day, and I was very afraid of a repeat.  My brother kept reminding me that I had never trained like that for a race before.  I knew I was prepared, I just have been struggling with pushing myself hard enough on race day.  I have also really been struggling with mentally getting into a race while I am running in the race.  It's really been holding me back.
       The race was on the same day as the MS walk.  Luckily, the race started at 8:00 a.m. and the walk at 9:30 a.m.  On the drive over to my brother's house I basically gave myself a pep talk the entire time.  I think I got into a very good place mentally.  We arrived at the race and there were a lot more people there than I anticipated.  That always makes me nervous because I assume that means there will be a lot of fast runners there. 
      The gun went off and I took off.  I hit the hill hard and instantly knew all that training definitely paid off.  It was very surreal for me to run a race right before participating in the MS walk.  I really focused on thinking of all those people that I would see at the walk that struggled daily to move at all.  For some taking a few steps is impossible.  I thought about what they would give to walk a few steps, let alone run a mile.  I really thought about my mother-in-law Vicki and how much I wished she was still here and what she would have given to live a normal life.  I ran for her and everyone who has been affected by this horrible disease.  I ran really hard and knew I was pushing myself the way I should have.  I was amazed as I came down the final hill and saw my time.  I had set a PR on a very difficult course.  I came in about 2 minutes faster than I thought I would!!!  I was so proud of myself.  I literally crossed the finish line, then hopped on a bus to head back to the parking lot where I met my sister and mom. 
       I anxiously waited all afternoon to see the final results.  I knew that I had done well.  I was utterly amazed when the results were posted.  I got 2nd place overall for the females!!!!  That is by far the best I have ever done.  This was out of 303 women!  I honestly can say that I am very proud of myself and never, ever in a million years when I first decided to start running a few years ago would have thought I would be taking 2nd place in a big race like this.  It just goes to show if you dedicate yourself to something and put your all into it, you can go far. 
     I have a lot of races coming up.  I honestly don't expect to do that well in the rest of them.  I think the conditions were just right for me on Saturday to do so well.  It's going to be very hard to top Saturday.