It's a Beautiful Day

The day started out early.
And by early, I do not mean like 7 oclock in the morning, for those of you that think that is early-
That is usually my sleep in time.
Early was 2 in the morning.
The alarm clock did not even have to be set because
the whole night long, I tossed and turned in EAGER anticipation to RUN.
It sounds funny to those of you who do not LOVE the sport.
But to you devoted runners, ONLY YOU would understand.
The only buzz, or BEEP BEEP BEEP that got me up and fully clothed that morning was the beep beep beep of my heart ready to race at the start line.
AND the music in my head.
Usually I set the alarm to the loudest BEEP function, but the MUSIC setting usually comes on.
With some static sound of a song from the sixties.
SO the song of choice in my head before this race today was "The final countdown"
doo, doo doo doo, -doo doo doo doo doo.
(I always have a different song going through my head before each race- and they are usually different)
The drive there was great- half bagel, banana and coffee-always pre-race meal.
We arrived in KAPOLANI or some odd name like that.
There were 1000 people there.
It was so exciting. It was pure dark. I have never been at a dark race before.
I have never run a race in the dark either.
AND, I have never run a race at 5:30 in the morning. CRAZY
We were at the starting line. No beep, no gun to commence the race- they are less violent here.
I took the first six miles easy-pretty conservative.
First 10k was about 47 to 48 minutes I think.
Then I figured I SHOULD pick it up, If I wanna make it under 1 hr40min.
So I started to really get focused. The sun was up by this point.
AND I really started to feel it.
I dropped my water bottle at mile 7. Bad move.
DID not go back to get it...cause those kinds of things really distract me...
And that one thing can MAKE or BREAK a race for me.
The aid stations were every two miles.
I took two glasses of water at each station.
One glass went on my head and the other in my mouth of course.
AT mile 10 I was hurting a bit. This was my most ill focused mile.
At this mile my mind told me I was too tired. One girl in green shorts started passing me.
I did give up during this mile, but then I saw the mile 11 marker and something happened.
I told myself to imagine that I was just starting the run and was only running two miles today.
I told my legs to do it. I shut out EVERYTHING around me. AND it was weird.
Just kept saying "Don't give in, don't."
I passed the girl in the green shorts.
We played tag several times in the last three miles.
I came to the mile 12 marker.
And I became VERY focused.
I KNEW I would do it.
That mile was soooo long.
Imagine being able to see the finish line for a half a mile straight.
I could see the balloon like structure in the distance for sooo long.
It looked like a kids bouncy castle. Man, if ONLY I could bounce myself there NOW!
OH, my, I felt like I was in QUICK SAND, my legs so heavy.
It should be called 'SLOW SAND' however, cause at that point, there was No sprinting coming from my legs.
At that moment I wished I was good ol' PANTHER PANTS. (The man from my Kelowna race).
I finally was approaching the long awaited moment of the clock above my head.
I saw 1:37:50.
That was better than seeing the 2:00 AM on my clock this morning.
And the song that was blasting at the finish line:
It's a Beautiful Day.
And the girl in the green shorts-
yep, I beat her (I am really not competitive at all).
Yes folks, it truly was a beautiful day.