Till yesterday morning I had been debating if I should go this race.I hurt my butt/hip in the gym only couple days ago."At least you can walk to finish it", so I off I went, with my family(two kids, 5 year old daughter and 3 year old son)to Boston, a very little nice town in southern Geogia.
When we got to the race site 7:30am, many runners already started to warming up and jogging. We parked near a black live band, starting playing their hip-hop music. My son started to shake with their music but I had to rush to the registration booth.
The race started at 8am, after a prayer and live sing national anthem.I started out with the fastest 5-6 runners for about half mile and realized it was too fast for me.(My Garmin show the pace was 6:30min/mile.)Adn I slowed down and waited for my pacer,often the local winner of the female runners. I ran staying with her for a couple miles and found I had to let her go.I had run with her in the long run training and I felt I could keep up with her. But racing is not training.
To my gladness,my hip did not bother me at all and I did not feel any pain during the race.But after 7 miles, I got passed by a few people, I had known they are very good runners before but still felt bad.I tried stay focused on my breathing using 3/3 and 2/2 alternatively, did not feel much difference.
It was hot weather, 73 degree and high humidity(80%). I was all wet and had to drink water every stop.at the last 2 miles, I was passed by a guy, he was saying,"good run, keep it up".I was telling myself to stay with him,but all I could do was watching him running farther and farther. I Did feel strange that his back and shirt was dry though. "are u running HM?" I almost asked him.
The last mile, I was getting exausted and trying to keep it up. A handsome white guy volunteer said to me"good run,...finish it strong!" I regenerated and made my last push. I passed the Black live band and sprunt to the finish line-I always do good for the last few hundred yard-hearing the black band singer in that Black only specilized tone"...Oh baby, show me what you got, oh baby, hold what u got...". As I dashed to the finishline with all my strenth in the cheering of the audience, I saw the time shown was 1:31:38. I had to push, push harder... i made prediction of run 1:32:00. My eyes fixed on the time sign as I ran to the line.I used all my strenth to beat this time.But the moment I passed the line it shown 1:32:00. (No, I did not wait a second to get the exact time I predicted!)
When we were leaving and passing the live band and they still singing, my daugher said" he calls everybody-baby".I told her "you and your brother are my only babies!"