| Date/Location: | July 4, 2021 – Coronado, Ca (Racing here since 2014) |
| Distances: | 5km |
| Time: | 20:18 (Previous PR 19:40, 2019)|
| Place: | 3rd (40 Total), 15-19 Female|
| Teammates: | 5K: Ariel Soares, Jan “Grammie” Heidt;
I walk towards the start of the race and look for my parents. I see a yellow hat waving around and know that’s must be them. We get reunited and get ready to start. After we pray together, my dad says I can go up ahead. I slip through all the people to get closer to the front. I see them putting a rope between the runners to separate waves. I ask to move up to start with the first wave. They let me. I want to be close to the front to have fast people to pace with. They count down and send us off. I walk to the start because there are a lot of people trying to go at once. I try to slow down a little bit to give myself a good gap so that when I cross the timing sensor, to start my race, I can start fast without a ton of people ahead of me to slow me down. I start running and cross the sensor. I try to start fast, but my plan doesn't work too well. There are still a lot of people ahead of me. I touch the flag above me and continue running. Slowly people start to disperse as we get out of the running shoot. We turn onto the sidewalk and start to head toward the bridge. The sidewalk is pretty crowded which makes it hard to run. I’m doing pretty good on pace. My hip hasn’t been the best this year which has slowed me down from getting a lot of running training in. I’m not as well trained as 2 years ago, but I’m still planning to do my best for the Lord. My goal is to do 7 min pace the first mile, then 6:30 min pace the next two, which sets me up for a 20 min finish time. My goal is to try to get under 20 min like I did last time. I run by a drumming group that is playing for the racers. It’s nice of them to wake up early to do that for us. The path curves under the bridge and then next to the golf course. I'm holding 7 min right now but it’s still hard. I’m trying to stay up with some girls that started in front of me. It’s tiring, but I’m getting ready to drop my pace to 6:30. I get to the top of a small hill and turn onto the road next to the golf course. Up ahead I can see the first-mile sign. I hit the sign and pick it up. My watch says I did the mile at 6:56. Great. I have a few seconds to spare.
It’s hard to pick it up when I’m already tired. I just hope I won’t burn up from going too fast in the beginning. I trust God to help get me through it. I get to the aid station and grab water. I’m about to drink it when I realize that it’s Gatorade. I throw it down then grab the real water. I take a sip and dump a little bit of it on me. It’s kind of humid today, which is unlike San Diego. At least the weather is cool and cloudy. I start to see runners coming back and I know that the turnaround is coming up. I see it up ahead and go around it. A lady in front of me slows me down a little bit, but I get back up to speed. I’m heading back and I hope that the finish will be soon because I’m so tired. One year I was able to say "good job" to everybody I ran by. Now it feels like it's so hard to just talk. I do say "good job" to the people I pass. I start to look for my Mom and Dad but it feels tiring just to do that. I see Dad up ahead running. I wait for him to notice me, but he doesn't see me. I yell “Dad” and we tell each other good job. I found out later that I missed Ariel who was right behind Aad. I guess she was too fast for me. I keep running trying to stay at the 6:30 pace. I see Mom up ahead and she cheers me on. I tell her I’m dying. I see the aid station up ahead, but don’t get anything. I’m almost at the mile marker. My watch hits 2 miles and for that mile, I got 6:27. Yay, more extra seconds.
I keep running and go by a guy pushing a pink stroller with a kid with a disability in it. I have seen a ton of pink strollers around and now I remember the announcer talking about a club that got to start first. This must be them. It’s nice of them to show their support to these kids, by pushing them the whole race. I turn onto the sidewalk leading back under the bridge. I remember that most people slow down here, but I push through the pain and try to keep up my pace. I pass a kid and say "good job". By now my good jobs are faint and kind of hoarse. I wonder if I sound creepy. I go under the bridge and hear the drummers on the other side. Up ahead I see a girl who looks like she is in my age group. I try to pick it up even though it’s not much. It seems unlikely that I would catch her but I don’t give up. As I’m running I feel like I'm in agony right now. I haven’t pushed my body this hard for a while. I’m thankful that my hip isn’t acting up and holding at this pace. I also thank God for letting me be able to push myself for him in this race. I hit three miles at 6:23 mile. More extra seconds for the .1 I forgot to add to my pace. Oh well, if I don’t get 20 min that’s okay. I’m still giving my best effort. I turn into the finish line and sprint in. I see the girl up ahead finishing, but I still push in. The clock says over 20 min but maybe I still make it because I crossed the start line after they started the timer. I finish giving the effort to God for getting me through it. I collapse on the ground but get up after 5 seconds to make room for the finishers coming in. I don’t want to block them. I go off to the side to recover and thank God for a good race. My Garmin got 00:20:20 which is pretty close to 20 min. I always forget how painful the recovery after the race is, but at least it proves I went all out for God. The official time was 00:20:18.
Praise the Lord for He is Good, His Love Endures Forever.
