See Mommy Pass Out

1088th place is awesome.
 I finished my first 10k race today and it was miserable. I don’t feel proud that I accomplished it, all I feel is pain and exhaustion. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to finish, which is pretty bad and means that since I only beat 12 people out of 1100, a bunch of little kids and old men beat me too. I ran with one of my friends from college who I am indebted to because I would have quit if it wasn’t for her talking me through it and pushing me to keep going.


I was running so slow at one point, I actually forgot I was even in a race until the winning runner came whooshing by as he LAPPED me on only my 3rd mile. I was in awe of him. He was running about a 5 minute mile and was finishing up his 6th mile like he was out for a jaunt in the park. It was so effortless for him, he was just gliding by. I started to whine to myself, "why is everything so hard for ME, school was hard, being a good therapist is hard, being a good wife and mom is hard, this stupid race is hard, there is NOTHING I do that comes naturally easy to me."


I managed to hit mile 4 at 45 minutes and was feeling like I was gonna pull this thing off, until I took about 3 more steps and just hit my wall. The last 2 miles were me basically trudging  and Julie (my friend and who I blame for my current pain) puling me along. I must have taken a nap along the way without realizing it because those last 2 miles took me 30 minutes.


My husband, the hero, came out with all 3 kids like he does for every one of my races and I could hear him cheering for me as I rounded into the 6th mile. I seriously started to well up; I just was ready for it to be over. As I headed for the finish line, I suddenly was renewed with energy and got my form back, this was coming naturally to me and finally it was feeling amazing! I could be like the 5 minute mile guy, I could be a good mom, wife and therapist and make it all look easy. Those thoughts were quickly dashed in the next second. As I ran past my family heading for the finish, my son yelled out, and I wish I was making this up, “You earned yourself a big Bud Light mom!” At least I ended the race laughing.