Ready
Posted by Ann Hughes | June 3, 2011 | 5 Comments
24:45. That number has been in the back of my mind for two years. It’s my time from the Freihofer’s Run the last time I ran it, in 2009. Back then, I thought of that number with pride, because it was best Freihofer’s time ever. But now it haunts me because the downside of caring about a personal best is that I want to beat it. I really have no idea if I can, but I now know something I didn’t know 10 weeks ago when the Freihofer’s Training Challenge began.
I know how far determination and will power can take us. I have seen it in the eyes of the women on my Training Challenge team, as some first struggled to run for 90 seconds without stopping. I have seen it as they showed up for our Monday evening run week after week, some not sure if they could go the distance that the program called for. I have seen it as they struggled through cold, windy weather, rain and this past week, the heat.
I was looking through video of our first training run the other day, as I wrote my story for the Freihofer’s Run special, which will air on FOX23 Saturday night at 10:30. All of these women who were strangers are strangers no more. I stopped the video as I shuttled through, to say – there’s Barbara, Jacqueline, Holly, Lisa, Andrea and many more. I realized I am no longer in this record-setting field of close to 5,000 by myself. I am part of something much larger. I am so grateful for that experience, and I know my fellow team captains, Kelly Lynch and Jennifer Gish, feel the same way.
We all have different goals tomorrow. To finish. To do the whole course without walking. To shave a minute off a previous personal best. I’m still shooting for 24:44 and I know exactly what I will do when my mind starts telling my body that it can’t run anymore, it needs to slow down, it can’t hold the pace. I’ll be thinking of my ladies. The ones who never quit when it got tough. The ones who only made it to the starting line because they believed.
Tonight I will savor every bite of my traditional pre-race Sicilian pasta (no need to carb load but it has become my lucky meal). I will drink water and then more water. And I will lay down tonight with all the excitement of a child on the night before Christmas.
See you in the morning.
Comments
5 Responses to “Ready”
June 3rd, 2011 @ 12:23 pm
You can do it Ann! I’m going to beat 50:00, and you’re going to SMASH through your personal best!! Go Ann Go!!
June 3rd, 2011 @ 3:47 pm
Ann,the couch to 5k program is truly amazing, and the Freihofer Training challenge has been inspirational for me. I am running my first ever race, a personal goal to achieve before my 60th birtday mid-June. I am loving the experience, and plan to keep on running.
I too want to beat 50:00, and like Holly, I think you are going to do great!
June 3rd, 2011 @ 4:18 pm
You are an inspiration! Best of Luck tomorrow! You can do it!!!
June 4th, 2011 @ 12:55 pm
Congrats Nicole….you did Amazing…and yes you are an inspiration to all of us!
Love,
Aunt Denise
June 4th, 2011 @ 7:05 pm
Although my schedule didn’t allow me to participate in the whole couch potatoe to 5K training, it gave me the kick in the butt I neeeded to get up and train myself. Each week I would think of the very first training run with so many other women in frigid windy weather thinking if I could do a run in that weather I certainly can train in any conditions. I succeeded and ran the race with a personal best time. Thanks t0 the training team for being so supportive and empowering!!