is a local organization that offers free services to cancer patients and their families and the
is their fundraiser for the year. It is held annually on
, the first Sunday in June, at a local, up-scale mall about a half hour from my house. I affectionately call it my race-aversary because it was the race that
The first year after my cancer diagnosis, we did the 1 mile walk with my husband's company's team and when my friend, Kris, was called home after her battle with breast cancer the following January, I vowed to run the 5K in her memory. I wasn't an athlete growing up and had really never run before but that March, I laced up and got moving. My only intention was to run the race, however, and call it a day but I fell in love with racing and here I am, four years later.
Glass half full
The hamstring issue that started right before the race last year reared it's ugly head again late last year and in January, it got worse to the point I started PT and I wasn't getting any better. I had to completely stop running altogether for a bit in February and when I got frustrated that PT wasn't making me any better after almost two months, I decided to give a highly regarded sports chiropractor a try and found out the issue wasn't my hamstring at all but rather something going on in my spine (long story, won't bore you with the details) causing the issues in my hamstring and I slowly worked my way back to running. In 2016 I decided to make the RftP my
goal race for the year and last year my goal was to rub sub 24:00
which didn't happen because the hamstring issue had just started so I know with the lack of running this year, there was no sense trying to beat my time from last year so accepting the situation as it was, I decided to take the glass half full approach and just be happy I was able to run at any capacity.
The five
I always like to dedicated this race to someone since that's how this all started to begin with but I wasn't sure who. In April, in a span of about 30 days, I learned two women I went to high school with and a friend's sister were diagnosed with breast cancer, a friend of my husband's was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer, and a sole sister's brother's battle with brain cancer sadly came to and end so I became clear….
I would run this years race in honor of them. These are all young people we are talking with a range of lifestyles. Unfortunately cancer does not discriminate and while there is no way to prevent it, we sure as heck can stand up to it and let it know we're not going to give up hope. As you know,
I always design a race shirt to wear so this year I decided I would make a
Just Keep Swimming…and Running tank top since that's my team name and chose the color purple because it's the color of hope.
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| Complete with "unstoppable hope" running socks |
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| I couldn't decide which headband I wanted to wear. |
I thought it was pretty cool the color I picked for my shirt is the same one The Gathering Place picked for this year's official shirt which I didn't know until I went to packed pick up to get my team's bibs and shirts.
I had my
outfit all laid out the day before like I usually do. I didn't sleep much Saturday night and woke up pretty early Sunday morning but surprisingly, I felt pretty good. I told my team I'd be at the race by 8 a.m. and thanks to my DH, Paul, helping me make sure I had everything, we were out the door just a little past 7:30 a.m.
The team
This year my team had some of the usual suspects (I even got Paul, to run) but I was also joined by a few new faces. I had donated a race entry to a monthly challenge group called
Good Running I belong to so I was joined by the winner, a woman I've gotten to be friends with from the running club, and on our way to the race, the VP of the running club messaged me and said she and her daughter were doing the race and wanted to know my team name so they could sign up under my team. Sweet! Also on the way to the race, we ended up behind a local running legend/superstar, an 83 year old woman who started running in her 40s and even was a professional body builder in her 50's. She can be seen at just about every race every weekend. I had the pleasure of being on relay team with her at the Northern Ohio Marathon last fall. When we parked, we briefly talked and she was in a bit of a hurry so we parted ways. She hadn't been seeing my Facebook posts about the race and didn't know I even had a team so later on when we saw her again, we made her an "honorary" member and she hung out with us and be in the team picture afterwards.
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Unofficial 2018 Just Keep Swimming...and Running team photo.
Hopefully the official one won't be missing half of our teammate. |
Go time
Eventually we all met up in our designated spot. I went for a short warm up and I felt good. Nothing hurt! It's a good thing because I had gone for a run on Thursday and while I didn't hurt, it was a horrible run and I felt so behind the 8 ball in my training because just running 3 miles was a serious effort. But my warm up felt good and I had decided I was foregoing any race goals this year and was just going to run because of what the race meant to me so I was in a good place mentally. I passed another person warming up and we commented on how perfect the weather was..sunny, mid 60s, cool. Ha, little did we know that would change come race time.
The survivor's ceremony started at 8:45 so we listened to it for a little bit and then headed over to the starting line because I know what a cluster it can be. Surprisingly this year, we weren't totally packed in like sardines as is past years and those of us wanting to "run" the race lined up just far back enough to let the people "racing" have their space. The gun went off and so did we.
The course
I am not going to go into the details of the course because it's been the same course every single year so you can read more about it in my
2017 race report or other previous years posts if you are so inclined. Luckily my hamstring didn’t bark, not even a yip PTL but the race was hot, mentally challenging and tough, my lungs hurt, and there were times I wanted to stop and walk….I had to keep telling myself I could slow down but walking was not an option, to fight through the suck because the people I was running in honor of were fighting something far worse than a tough race in the hot sun. In my many moments of self-doubt, I would look down at my inspirations (purposely turning my watch around before the race so I couldn’t see my time) and thinking about them kept me moving. The mental game was horrible. I was trying to focus on the songs that were purposely selected for this race but that wasn’t really working. There were several times I'd "kiss" my inspirations (literally putting my lips to my arm) for a "power up" because I was miserable. There were a few times during one song I'd reach up to the sky as I ran. I'm weird, I know, but that's how I roll. And did I mention it was hot to boot? There wasn't much shade during the race so the sun was beating down.
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| My five inspirations |
The finish
Going into the race I was hoping for MAYBE a time in the 26s because that’s where my 5Ks have been this year but the way I was feeling as the race went on, I figured that wasn’t going to happen. Imagine my surprise when I got to the final stretch and could hear the announcer calling times in the 24s! I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t have much for a final kick so I kept my pace, heard my niece-in-law and older sister cheer me on, and crossed the finish in 25:02. After I crossed the finish line, I was really struggling to catch my breath and almost went into panic mode that something was wrong. But as I kept walking and drinking my water, I felt better. I went over to watch the rest of my team finish and afterwards we stood around and chatted for a bit.
Awards weren't supposed to be until 10:30 (they are usually at 10) so I had our team picture scheduled for 10:15. Since we were all together, we were able to get our picture early which is a good thing because they ended up starting the awards at 10 anyway. This race doesn't have live results like my other ones do so we always stay for the awards because my brother-in-law usually wins an AG place and
I won an OA Female survivor award in 2016. A few teammates knew they weren't winning anything so they said their goodbyes, I thanked them for being on my team, and they went home.
My brother-in-law won 2nd in his AG and our local running legend, whom we made an honorary team member, won 1st. They quit doing Top 3 Survivors Male and Female Divisions last year for some reason and once again, had they offered the award, I would have placed.
After the race, we went to the local Fox and Hound restaurant for lunch which has kind of become our "go to" after this race. Good thing because I was STARVING! I don't eat before a race and all they had were granola bars this year post-race. =(
Final thoughts
The other 5Ks I've done this year felt "good." Sure, they weren't a walk in the park but I thoroughly enjoyed them and it was after this race when I figured out why this one hurt (no let's be honest, it sucked) like it did…that's because I was pushing myself and didn't realize it…racing a 5K isn't supposed to feel "good" so it wasn’t that I had lost my fitness, it's because I was actually "racing." I needed a "pick me up" to get out of the slump I have been in and this race did just that!.
My time might have not earned me any AG awards however I was victorious so many other ways. I managed to move up the ranks in my AG to the #5 spot, I was 5th OA cancer survivor, and I was 175th out of 1469 people. HUGE HUGE victories to me. Not to mention I was able to run pain free and as I write this post race, still have no hamstring issues.
I realized when I got home that’s only 19 seconds shy of my RftP course PR of 24:43 which was set in 2016 and only 3 seconds off from my time in 2017 of 24:46. I never guessed in a million years I would even be CLOSE to that. I guess the lack of training this year didn’t put as big of a dent as I thought it would.
Coincidentally, I am a 5 year survivor, this was my 5th time participating in the RftP event and I had 5 people who were my inspirations for this year’s race. Hmmmm..lots of 5s going on there and you know how I am about numbers and their meanings. ;-)
Thank you to everyone who supported a race that means so much to me, whether you were on my team, made a donation, or cheered me on from afar. But the biggest thanks, other than to God of course for giving me another day, goes to the ones who inspired me and got me to the finish line in a race I wasn’t sure I’m make to. You gave me hope when I thought it was lost and crossing that line and running in your honor is my biggest victory and better than any award I could ever win. Just keep swimming!
**Edited to add**
Many people think that because this is fundraising race that it is more of a community-type event with people just there for the event. While it is such a race, it's also where some serious contenders come out as well. This year was no different
as you can see by this year's results here. The top ladies in my AG always run times in the low 20s. The top runner in my AG this year ran 19:59 giving her 3 OA female. The record for my AG females is 19:37!!! This year to top 3 ladies ran in the 23's and on a good day I don't think I could run this race that pace (my lifetime PR is 23:47 and that was a struggle). The record for Rick's AG is 14:55!! Yeah, some serious contenders for sure!
Stats
Time: 25:02
174/1469 OA
4/105 AG **Updated** on 6/5 the result changed and now I'm #4 not #5 as originally posted because #1 in my AG won 3 OA female so the online results were updated this afternoon to reflect that)
5/135 OA Survivor
3 OA Female survivor
Splits (coincidentally, looking over my past race reports, my 2nd mile is split is always significantly slower than the others).
2018 7:59, 8:45, 8:17
2017 8:07, 8:43, 7:59
2016 7:58, 8:42, 8:04
