So today I completed my 5th half marathon of the year. It was cool out this morning and I knew things were going to go ok because I wasn't nervous at all!
This was a small race, I believe it was around 300ppl. There was a 5k, half marathon relay and a half marathon offered.
Before I went into this race it was agreed that I would run this race with my running sister Shanda to get her a PR and this would be a good training run for me.
Race started promptly at 7:30 am and we started out in the middle of the pack. She wanted to attempt to run the first 3 mi, but we stopped at 1 mile and then kicked in her interval. The course was pretty much flat and majority was on a city trail. So to get back on the running part of this race, I was staying slightly ahead of her at the pace that she needed to meet her goal. I believe that we started out too fast, but I wanted to make this a comfortable race for her. I would keep my pace around 11:50/12:00 to keep her in the 12 range, but what started to slow her pace was the walking portion. She needed to stay under a 16min mile. I was walking about a 14min pace to keep her on track. We was doing very well until the 9th mile when we had a small complication, but nothing that we couldn't overcome together.
We slowed it down, did a little more walking so we could bring it in strong. She was doing really good the entire time, just had to keep her encouraged. It seemed like the last 3 miles was a long time for her, but I stayed with her every step of the way. No woman is ever left behind and I don't care if I don't know you. Sometimes we have to set aside what we want to achieve at a certain race to help others reach theirs.
As we approached the finish line we had lots of cheerleaders from our run group and I believe that gave her the extra push to run it in strong. Sunny, a pace leader for DRC shouted out to me that "you said you can't pace someone, but you paced her the whole way", that just made my day because we both accomplished something. I tell you, it's not easy to pace someone when you have to slow down from your regular pace, but it's something that can definitely be done! To see that person achieve their goals, smile and be happy.....that's enough for Leesha!
Shanda PR'd and did it by 10 minutes (I may be off a little) so I was happy that I could help her and encourage her to keep going when she wanted to give up.
If you take one thing away from this, please realize that it's not always about you. Sometimes you have to step outside of "your" box and help others. There are other races out there that can be your target and I knew going into this one it was NOT for ME, it was for Shanda.
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