The Devil Made Me Do It

I'm so far behind on posting lately but I figured that I needed to let you all know that I did, indeed, complete the Charlottesville Ten Miler!!  It took me quite awhile - I crossed the Finish Line just before the race timer hit 2 hours! - but I did it and lived to tell about it so I accomplished my goal!

It was actually a really great experience.  After I crossed the Finish Line I told the Spicy Chicken that I thought I might like to do another one.  I now chalk that statement up to the delirium of just having run 10 miles and feeling pretty damn proud of myself at the moment, of course, but all in all it was a great morning. 


It didn't start out that way, though. 

Yep, that's my bib number - 666.  I'm not really a superstitious kind of girl but, 666? Really? You'd think race directors would skip over this number - like they do with 13th floors and things like that. Nope. Not this race at least.  And lucky me, I just happened to be the 666th person to register.  Guess that's one more lesson learned about not procrastinating.


I decided to do the Ten-Miler because I know I'm the type of person who functions better when I have a goal.  Going from a slow 5K runner to a 10-miler in a few months was probably an overly ambitious goal, but I needed something to re-energize my commitment and some added accountability. Once I registered and told all of you I was going to do it I couldn't turn back.


And I didn't. But I'd be lying if I said the thought didn't cross my mind a few (or maybe more than a few) times. Like the night before the race when The Spicy Chicken work up at 2am with abdominal pains and I caught myself saying (aloud) "Please let it be appendicitis!".  


Or...early the next morning as we sat in the parking lot of JPJ Arena and I said "We could just go out to breakfast..."


Or...at mile 5 when I passed the people sitting on the patio at The Nook drinking bloody mary's and seriously contemplated joining them...


But I didn't do anything of these things.  I kept on going - no matter how slowly - and I finished. I did it, I really, really did it!