Its official, I am Addicted

Alright, its safe to say that I am officially addicted to racing.  The fact that I have an extreme type A personality and am very competitive towards both myself and others does not help. I ran my second 5k yesterday.  That's two in two weeks! Turns out my official finishing time for the first race was 37 minuets.  After I finished I was proud of myself and after a few days went by I began to wonder if that was really as fast as I could run it and if i had really pushed myself hard enough during the race. I was very pleased, it turns out I placed 7th in my division and that was good but I knew I had more in me so... I registered for a race for the following weekend! My goals for race two was to beat my time by at least 6 minuets (but I really wanted to get into the 20's) and to give this race all I had so that when I finished I had no regrets.

So I am at the start line and the horn sounds. "This is it Zari" I thought to myself. "Just go for it". I know that in order to reach my goal I will have to run a consistent 10 minuet mile the whole way. From the very beginning people were passing me. The course was very different than the first race. The first one was on trails. This one was around a large school that has a large field on both sides of it. Bottom line is that I found out I don't like running in grass but there was an advantage to this course. When you ran around the field you could clearly see how many people were ahead and behind you. So it made me feel much better seeing that I was right behind the runners and ahead of the walkers.

On the second lap around the school I began to set goals for myself like, jog to that post then walk to the fence than jog... and so on because I knew the 3rd mile was were I gained the most time. I am glad to say that my strategy paid off. Before I knew it I was crossing the finish line and guess what the clock read, 29.37!!! That was the extreme goal I had set. I honestly did not think I would achieve it.

That feeling of success was even better that from the first race. I had done it. I was in the 20's (it was by the skin of my teeth, but I was there!). And that's no even the end. I decided to stay and hear the awards just so I could know about the time I needed to place. My division was Females 14-19. "And first place goes to... Zari H! Oh the excitement that filled me was unbelievable. Let me just put it into perspective for you here for a moment. I win awards for my brain. I graduated high school at 15 and was top of my class. I win debates and such but I have never placed first in a athletic event... ever. 1st Place!

Its going to be a few weeks until I run my next race. I am hoping it will be a 10k 6.2 miles. But I am still on a high from the last one so that should last me for a while :)

Til then,

-Z