Running my First 15K

     Today I ran my first organized group race, the Lakefront Discovery 15K, run along Milwaukee’s beautiful Lake Michigan shores. Running really makes you dig deep down to find out what you’re made of. Turns out I’m made of running material — I met the goal and did fairly well, too!

     My husband and I took off from the starting line together, but his knee injury roared and clawed for him to stop. He couldn’t finish, which is tremendously sad because he trained so hard for this run. I kept going for the two of us and decided to dedicate my run to him. That turned out to be a really good thing because it kept me going more than once, especially when the wind made me wonder whether I was making any forward progress. His cheering along the way was another buoy that kept me from sinking.

     Many steps later, I was sprinting across the finish line with a time fifteen minutes better than the last time I’d run such a distance. My final time was 1:25.24 for a pace of 9:10. I’m really pleased to have done this even while it marks the end of my running season this year. Now I concentrate on skating.