N S V for me and that other girl..

I just completed my first ever 5k Run/Walk race (walking, thank you!) with a time of 46:24. (Tho Endomondo claims it was 44:20.)

I walked my BUTT off, up and down a slew of hills - some pretty steep (Thank you CAS loop and Mine Falls SP!) By the end of Mile 1 I was in first place for walkers, and kept it there until the last kilometer (they had a marker posted for that.) I kept up a pretty intense pace of 14:44, 14:51, 14:44 for each of the three miles (according to Endomondo.)

When the officials began reading the race results it became clear I was misunderstanding a lot. (Silly me.) Turns out the race was NOT split into walking/running divisions - instead it was broken up into age divisions. So in reality I was competing against age group 30-39 walkers AND joggers. Needless to say, I didn't place. I was pretty annoyed by that, as it would have been nice to know in advance however *I* still know I finished, and wasn't last and booked it the entire course. Really that is a lot to be excited about. I am not sure I will participate in a race where there is no walking/jogging division again, since that was a sort of disappointment but in the grand scheme of things- I beat that course's BUTT OFF.

Before I close, I want to give another shout out to a girl who was also in this race- as a jogger. Her name is Angela. Let me explain:

This girl is overweight. Not as much as me, but overweight none the less. She participated in this competition and RAN the entire course, keeping just ahead of me the entire trip, not ONCE did that girl walk, her pace was grueling and slow and I am sure she hated every hill we hit, but she did NOT quit, and I was so awed and admired her determination that I promised myself I would shake that girl's hand and tell her how amazing I thought she was.

Several joggers quit jogging before we hit the 2 mile mark, but every time she got ahead of them at her steady pace, they would start jogging again until they got ahead of her. (That irritated me that ppl would be like that.) At the 1k left to go mark, they kicked it into high gear until they were well ahead of her and could finish before her, but she kept going, and she kept steady and my heart was so full of pride and joy for this girl I wanted to hug her. (Social no no?)

So after the race I got my prize kisses from The Hubby who watched me cross the finish line, then walked over and shook that girls hand, introduced myself, and told her just how PROUD I was of her and congratulated the heck out of her for not quitting like so many other people had. So shout out to Angela! (No she isn't on my MFP as far as I know, but I am still sending her a shout out ;-) )