Beaufort Road Race 10K

Sometimes you do a race because you want to beat a time.  Sometimes you want to run a race because you haven't completed that distance yet.  Sometimes you run a race to raise funds for a cause important to you.  Sometimes races are done to conquer a little "demon" in your soul.... 

For me, the Beaufort Road Race was that race.  I grew up on the coast of North Carolina, in the small town of Beaufort.  I loved growing up there and (sometimes) miss the quiet of the small town life.  For as long as I can remember, the Beaufort Ole Towne Rotary has sponsored a 10K/5K through town.  When I was a kid, I remember seeing signs advertising the race.  I also remember thinking it would be cool to do the race...  but since I was the little fat kid, I normally watched or went to the water station near my house to help pass out water to the runners.  

When I started running on July 24, 2010, I knew this race was one I wanted to complete.  When I started my blog, I added this race to my "fitness bucket list".  Exactly 51 weeks after I started running, I completed the Beaufort Road Race 10K!  

Earlier last week, I was very concerned about the race.  I posted a message or two on Facebook to see if anyone I knew would be doing the race - no one responded.  Later in the week, I posted a message on Facebook about my fear of coming in dead last.  Thanks to some great encouragement from friends, I began to feel more confident about doing the race.

The weather for the race was beautiful...  but humid.  I was sporting my cute new Moving Comfort "Alexis" tank and I had my Nathan water belt ready to go.  My Daddy dropped me off at the courthouse around 7:25 that morning.  He headed back home to meet up with Jason to go to a place on the course to cheer me on.  I wandered around downtown, enjoying being downtown when there was relatively little hustle-and-bustle.  About 7:50, I got behind the starting line toward the back.  At 8 a.m., the gun fired and we were off.

Around mile 1.3, I passed the road that connects my neighborhood area to Front Street (Leonda Drive).  I saw Jason and my Daddy standing and cheering.  I was "in the groove" with my music and smiled, waved and kept on running.  Around mile 2.75, I passed the other side of Leonda Drive (at Lennoxville Road).  Evidently J asked if I would marry him again.  I didn't hear anything because I had my music going full blast, but my Daddy got it on video.  It was pretty funny.

By the time I reached the water at mile 3, I was starting to get hot.  I wasn't really thirsty, but my face was burning up.  I ended up taking a cup of water and pouring it on my face.  It helped a ton!  I repeated this at miles 4 and 5.  I didn't realize how much cooling my face and chest off would help.

The entire time, I had 3 ladies behind me.  From mile 3 on, I turned occasionally to see if they were still there.  They had been there, but kept falling further and further back.  When I got to 5.25/5.5 miles, I turned around to see who was still behind me.  Well, they weren't there.  You know what that meant?  If those three ladies were not still behind me, I was going to be last.  I started to panic.  My worst race fear was becoming a reality. 

I realized that this race was about me, not the people behind me.  As much as the thought of being last frustrated me, I kept on truckin'.  As I got closer to the finish line, there were people cheering and being so encouraging.  I finished the Beaufort Road Race in 1:19:59.  I had a goal to finish in less than 1:20 and I did it - one second less, but I did it! 

I had a little bit of a hard time dealing with finishing last yesterday.  After I thought more throughout the day about how far I have come in one year, I was happy with the result.  I am actually going to write another post tomorrow or later this week about being last because of a shirt I saw today. 

Looking forward to doing the Beaufort Road Race again next July!!