The Pursuit Of Happiness - Entry #283
"The starting point of all achievement is desire. Weak desire brings weak results." ~Napoleon Hill |
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The Pursuit Of Happiness - Entry #238
"The greatest achievement is to outperform yourself." ~ Denis Waitley |
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A Half Marathon and A Full Wineglass
As you may have read (in more then one post), Brenden and I journeyed up to Corning, NY a few weekends ago. We had a chance to visit the Corning Museum of Glass and spend time with Brenden's family. But, the original reason for the trip was the Wineglass Half Marathon I had signed up for, only a year or so ago. Since going to college in upstate NY, the area has found its way into my heart. Plus the fact that Brenden was still living up there at the time of registration did not hurt my reasoning for choosing this race. A vacation and race all in one, perfect. And even though Brenden has moved down since, we still got our vacation and race, only I didn't have to do the endless hours of driving by myself. In fact, Brenden did all the driving and I just kept him company (between sleeping, whoops). Does it get any better then that?! Love him!So we set out early Friday morning, and had a lovely weekend exploring and visiting and pretty much running around. Only too soon was it 5 am on Sunday morning, and I was waking up for probably the fourth and final time that night/morning. My nerves had kept me tossing and turning in the hours leading up to the race. It was my last race for the season, but I was just as nervous as I was for my first, just for different reasons. I was nervous for the forecasted, all-day thunderstorms, for my various injuries that had been acting up since my last race, for completing the race, for making everyone proud. But as I got ready I shook off the nerves, the rain that I heard pattering all night was slowing down, I was feeling good and confident, and I knew everyone was proud of me just for making it this far. Brenden and I packed up the last of our things and headed to the race.
The half marathon started about an hour and a half away from where we had stayed that night, but it felt like it took forever to get there. I was ready to go. It was a point to point race so we passed the full marathon runners as we drove to my starting point. I was getting excited. We followed the mile markers, distributed to guide the runners along the course. With each mile the race became more real. And then we were there, waiting in a line of cars packed with runners. I hopped out of the car, said goodbye to Brenden who wished me lots of luck, and walked toward the start line as Brenden drove in the opposite direction to meet me at the finish.
I walked about a quarter of a mile and finally got to the start line. It was already packed. I started to make my way back to the pacer I wanted to follow. I hadn't fully committed to a time before getting to the race, and of course that small voice of competitiveness (even just against myself) spoke up and said "You are feeling good, go with the 2 hour pacer. You can do it." So, although an even smaller voice in the back of my mind said I should keep walking farther back in the pack, my feet kept me planted toward the outskirts of 2 hour time. My ultimate goal was to finish in under 2 hours, but given the recent injury flare-up I had tried convinced myself that I was content with just running the entire race and finishing. My gesture to stay with the faster pacer told me that my original goal was not quite out of my head.
Now it was just a waiting game. I stretched my legs as much as I could in the two inch circle I had of personal space; I listened to the people around me chat with there friends and family, and I tried to get into my head and concentrate. It was finally time to start. I set my watch, slowly jogged to the actual start line as the masses of people scattered out (they decided to make it a one wave start), and I was off!
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| Photographer: Marathon Photo |
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| Source: Marathon Photo |
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Nice To Meet You!
- This is a blog filled with food, travel, design, and of course, sparkle. But I guess you want to know a little about me. My name is Tracy, and with a mind that is constantly running, I have become the face behind this blog.
