So it's August 23rd again

Happy two-year anniversary to me. It was two years ago today that I lost a foot to a woman who can't drive a car.

So what better way to commemorate it than going to Manassas, VA and participating in their Stonewall Jackson 5K run? Well I couldn't think of a better way, so I went. At 7:30 this morning, I was standing at the starting line with several hundred other folks waiting to go.

And that was my first mistake--being up at the front. This was my first ever 5K and by not thinking it through, I wound up taking off with many of the strongest runners, and I let that influence my pace, making me run way too fast and hard from the start and finding myself winded after the first mile. It got pretty hard from that point on, but I didn't quit.

Two thinks helped me finish that race, aside from my determination to do it. The first was all of my Law Enforcement brothers from the Manassas Police Department who were cutting traffic along the race course. every time I felt like dropping back to a walk, I'd see one, and dammit, I've still got to represent, especially since I'm wearing a t-shirt from my old department. If anything, I had to pick up the pace whenever one was in sight, just to make it look easy.

Truth be told, it wasn't easy. I haven't run since my 6-mile run a few weeks ago due to problems with my running foot and even that brief hiatus hurt me today. But fortunately I was blessed with assistance from a kindly and very pretty angel named Ariel, a fellow runner that I fell in with somewhere past the two-mile mark. She ran alongside me and kept pushing me to keep on, even when I was sure that I'd already burned what energy that I had. Bless her soul, she even slowed her pace to keep up with my dragging one, and with her as motivation, I made it to the finish line and even managed a final sprint to cut a few seconds off what was still a pathetic time.

And it was a horrible time even compared to my regular practice runs, but I still finished and that's what counts. It was that fast start that did me in, and next time I'll start out farther in the back and focus on overtaking people instead of staying up ahead of them all. And there will be a next time and it'll be soon. I can't think of a better way to train and improve than to get out and actually compete so as long as I've got Saturdays free, I'll be looking for other races within 50 miles or so.

And even though my time sucked, I finished. For the first race, I'm satisfied with that. I also spent a bit of time with a nice lady and quite a bit more with some of my LE brothers, a few of whom tracked me down after the run to offer congratulations and shoot the bull for a bit. That's the one thing that I truly miss about the job--everywhere you go, there's LE family around somewhere.


Oh--and I gave blood today, too. The American Red Cross is actually calling donors (like me) on the phone because they are critical short right now, so when I saw a donation center, I gave a pint. If you've got the time, they've got the need.