Main Street Beauty of a Mile 2012

Three months ago I would not have been able to do it.  But last night, I ran a mile, in the Main Street Mile Beauty and the Beast competitive heat for over 40 year olds, in 7 minutes flat!  To say I am excited would be an understatement!  To top it off, I felt like I recovered quickly from the effort and have the potential for going faster.  Faster is fun.

I ended up running in my beloved Moc3’s again because several minutes walking around barefoot on the race course made it clear the pavement was too scorching for safety. It was fun when we noticed that the Meadow Gold cow, who won the mascot heat, was wearing vibrams.  Don’t know who was actually inside the suit, but he or she was great about taking a photo with me.  🙂  I’m sure I was having as much fun as all the little kids chasing the Meadow Gold ice cream truck for their race!
Results are posted and it is fun to see that:

• I was the winner for my age category, even though there were only 9 women who ran this competitive heat
• My time was faster than all  82 women who were in the Mayor’s Mile (some of them were walkers)
• I would have come in 5th in the Key Bank Open Mile heat for the younger women (out of 10 women)

I had fun visiting with the woman who won my race.  She is the 2 time national champion for the mile in the Master’s Track and Field competition.  The whole atmosphere of the event was fun.  Greg and Betharoni were there as my support team.  Even though I was 22nd out of 27 runners in my particular race, including the men, I was cheered from a sidewalk cafe as I ran my second lap.  An onlooker very specifically yelled inspiring words to the “lady in the tie dye shirt, number 204!”  I smiled and waved.  What a life.