January 16, 2016
North Charleston, South Carolina
I'm back in Charleston on MLK weekend. It must be Sharon Johnson birthday weekend. This year she's turned it up and there are 8 of us that have joined in on the fun. Claudia, Sharon and I learned after last year's race the 5K starts in north Charleston and not Charleston. We were actually staying in north Charleston so that made getting to the start line a few miles closer.
We arrive at north Charleston high school about 7:40am the start/finish of the 5K and the finish for the marathon/half-marathon. Race starts at 8am. As we walk to the start line we meet a TIFL charlotte sister Tulani. She thinks we are from the TIFL Charleston chapter. We respond no we're from Raleigh. RALEIGH in da house. My pre-race jitters are kicking in so I make a beeline to the portable restrooms. I run into Geri, donnela, Maryann and Stephanie from TIFL charlotte. TIFL is deep at this race. Yeah!! I find the rest of my peeps. Our Charlotte sisters find us and the southeastern selfie extraordinaire Geri takes our pre-race groupie. Sharon asks is she she needs her selfie stick. I tell Sharon Geri is her own selfie stick. Say cheese.
We line up for the race. 8am we start off on the course for 3.1 miles. This is my 2nd time doing this race so I am familiar with the course. I haven't been running in like forever so I just keep walking at all my races. I got my music going on. RunKeeper and Garmin have started. I'm off on to knock out these miles. I pass mile 1 and I check my Garmin. I'm at 21:00/mile pace which is down from my normal 24:00/mile pace. That's what you call progress my friend. I slightly glance behind me to see if I'm the end and there are a few folks behind me. Woo Hoo I'm not the end. The water stops are fully stocked partly due to the marathon comes through part of the course. I pass mile 2 and I check the Garmin and I'm at 42:00 minutes. I'm so excited I've been able to keep up with the 21:00/mile pace. Since I've been moving like Jagger on the course I'm losing water left and right. I'm drinking from my camelback like its the best thing since sliced bread. I know I'm less than a mile to go. I keep putting one foot in front of the other. I'm coming through the neighborhood. I know I have a few more turns and I'll be in the shopping center near the finish line. As I turn into the main strip of shops I see Claudia mello's husband. He tells me I'm almost there. I notice he has on his medal so I know he's already finished. I make the last left turn. After I turn I spy with my little eye the mile 3 marker. I also spy some nice eye candy course monitors. :-)
I turn right past the mile marker. I see the finish line Shute up ahead. I make the last right turn and I see the finish line. I hear the race announcer. I hear the crowd cheering. So I'm thinking they are cheering for me. Turns out the first male finisher of the half marathon is coming up right behind me. He finishes in 67 minutes, the same time i finished the 5K. Im super Doppler exited I'm done but I'm also in awe that this guy just finished 13.1 miles in 67 minutes. Holy smokes batman. My 2nd 5K of 2016 is done. I grab my medal since the kids handing them out have forgotten they were supposed to be handing them out. I'm all about the bling. Did I mention as I was headed to the finish line, one of the volunteers who is a member of BGR Charleston walks up to me and invites me to join her BGR group. What is it about folks thinking I don't run when they see me walking. Who knows. I will eventually return back to running. Especially since I am planning to qualify for half fanatics in 2 months.
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