So, here's the basics of the race. This year I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to find an opportunity to raise money for one of my favorite charities, Back on My Feet. What is BOMF you ask? Here's the deal, it is a charity organization that is based in major cities around the country, including Philadelphia and Baltimore. BOMF reps go into homeless shelters or transitional living facilities and recruit individuals that want to participate in a running program. BOMF develops personal relationships with each person and helps them not only complete a running program, but also helps to create an individualized road map for financial independence. Each member attends financial literacy classes and job skills training provided through partnerships with our corporate partners. Members can earn financial assistance to remove barriers to employment and housing such as work supplies, transportation and security deposits. Members who achieve employment and housing become Alumni Members. Within six months of becoming a Back on My Feet Alumnus, 90% of members maintain their employment, 60% receive a wage increase and 20% achieve a promotion. Many of the participants are folks that are experiencing homelessness due to unfortunate circumstances and really do want to change- running provides them with the confidence to pursue success. Pretty awesome.
So, that was the why part of my race- here's the how. For quite a few months I have been dealing with implementing a new job schedule, kid activities, and so much going on with life in general, running has been an uphill battle. My initial plan to run the full marathon had to go on hold for the moment, so I dropped back to the half. It was a gorgeous fall day to drive down to Bmore, and with a 9:45 start, there was plenty of time to park and saunter over to our staging area. Luckily, the Raven's stadium parking was totally free to runners and only about 3/4 of a mile walk to the star area of the race. Baltimore (much like any other city- don't hate) can be intimidating- especially when you are on a time crunch. Kudos for that.
The race started much like any other. Me wiggling my way to the front of the starting area, barely paying attention to race announcements, fiddling with my watch, and off goes the cannon. Immediately, there's a four or five person pile up. Luckily, I got out of that one unscathed. Miles started clicking away. I was running with some dude and we were chatting a bit. 'Don't go out too hard.' he said. Yeah. Ok. Sure. 6 miles in and I totally saw what he meant. Hills upon hills with a side of incline. At 45 minutes, I knew I could no longer keep beating myself up for not making goal finishing time, so I started doing 2:30/2:30 on/off (for nonrunners, this means 2:30 fast, and 2:30 recovery) but that really didn't even happen because of course I timed it as the 'on' part was always uphill and the 'recovery' was on a blistering downhill. Everything went out the window around 8 miles and it was just a push to the finish. At 12 miles, I started having a back spasm, but kept up all the way to the finish, and of course then immediately disappeared. Awesome.
I wandered aimlessly for a while before returning to our tent to change. I threw on some dry clothing and headed out to the after party. There was beer! And wine! And food! Annnnddd….the results table. For whatever reason I was a hot emotional mess, and when I checked my results and found out I placed 3rd in my age group and finished around 26th female overall I literally cried a little. To finish 26 out of over 4000 with a race that more or less sucked and was pure grit was pretty awesome. At the very least, it finally gave me the confidence boost that I sooooo needed. The last few months have sucked, but I am starting to feel like myself again, and it was exactly what I was literally chasing.
And then I stopped at Trader Joe's on the way home. It was awesome.
