There Should Be An Award For Last Place

Unfortunately, Blogger has been a HUGE pain for the last two days and won't let me upload my photos (thus me posting this a day later than I promised). I thought I'd go ahead and post this without pictures and do a picture post later when I can actually get them loaded.

grumble grumble stupid technology grumble

There should be an award for last place.

I really do believe that. It takes a special person to finish last. It takes a special attitude to not quit in a last-ditch effort to avoid being last. "Oh, I didn't finish ... I just didn't feel right so I dropped out."

No, no, no ... a last place finisher deserves as much attention as a first place finisher. Yeah, maybe the last place finisher crosses that finish line when the awards ceremony is already halfway over, but that doesn't mean the whole crowd shouldn't turn around and applaud, and maybe--maybe they're chanting the last-place finisher's name.

Beckey!
Beckey!
Beckey!
Beckey!

"Ladies and gentlemen, please turn your attention away from Mr. Meb Keflezighi and toward the finish line. We are about to welcome the esteemed Ms. More-to-Love Beckey to our party. Let's cheer her on as she crosses the finish line at an astonishing 1:28:07 in 250th place out of 250 runners in today's 10K race."

(The crowd goes wild. Meb looks confused, but slowly joins in the clapping.)

I'm not going to say either way, but this scenario may or may not have been playing in my head for the last mile of Saturday's Rat Race 10K. So Meb wasn't there, but I'm pretty sure I was dying and I desperately needed something to keep me going. Granted, the fact that Caitlin told all the volunteers along the course for the final 3 miles to cheer me on did help a little, Okay, a lot. I still needed more. I was wiped out. My shin muscles wouldn't flex to bring my feet up off the ground, I was wet and cold and hot all at the same time, my lungs couldn't possibly take in any more air. The cheering crowd was all I had--er--I mean, all I might have had, had that daydream actually been playing in my head.

Yeah.

So, in case you haven't gathered by now, I finished this past Saturday's Rat Race 10K in ...

Wait for it ...

LAST PLACE

And frankly, I don't know that I've ever felt better about a finish. I've never felt like I left everything I had on the course. I never felt happier to cross the finish line after a run that didn't want to end. I never felt like I had just accomplished something truly not many people do.

I never wanted a hot dog more. Well, unless you count that time I was a vegetarian for 5 months... (photographic evidence forthcoming)

I had more individual attention in that race than I've ever had in a 10K, and not the creepy kind of attention. I'm talking about ...

• The volunteers who were happy to see me pass because it meant they could pack up and go
• The rest of the 10K runners who had already gotten to the turnaround and gave me words of encouragement when they discovered that they weren't last (something I kept reminding them of as they passed me:"Congrats! You're not last!")
  
• The idiots who were standing on the path or walking backwards through the finish archway who realized what they were doing when they saw me barreling (right...try trudging) toward them and when my mom yelled at them, "Ah, come on people!"
• My mom at the finish line with the camera
• And Caitlin, having crossed the line more than 2 minutes earlier, circling back around to watch me finish

(I like the last two best.)

=)

Anyway, it wasn't a bad run. It was freezing and raining the whole time, we didn't have time to warm up, we were amongst a group of rather serious runners (all the casual runners were smart enough to do the 5K), and my shins froze up almost immediately. But we did have gummy bears in our pockets for mid-race energy boosts (seemed to work for me!), and I clocked a 14:17/mile pace and beat the time of last year's last place finisher.

While it was definitely difficult and painful, I'm definitely glad I did it and I can see myself trying maybe 1 of these each year ... though now I'm considering the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race (a 10K). (If I continue to consider that 10K, please make sure I remember the discomfort I felt the evening after the Rat Race, along with the day after that and the terrible post-race run the Monday following. Thanks.)

Extra special thank you's to Caitlin for picking this run out for us and for doing such a kick-ass job (this girl and her super strong finishes is meant for marathons, folks) and, of course, to my mom; she had the option of going or not, but despite the cold and rain, she put on my pink rain tarp (jacket) and played photographer for us. Thank you!

Up next, smushing some runs in before the Flying Pig (Half) Marathon on May 1. I'm pretty sure that one is going to kill me.

Oh, and some news ... I had planned on beginning Cincinnati Adventure Fitness Bootcamp for Women this coming Monday. Thanks to flexibility from the ABC folks and the advice of some wise friends, I've decided to delay camp for a month to make way for the Pig.

******

Fernside fundraising update: $531