Carl & Trisha's Blog: July 2008

For the past month I have been training with some friends from class for the Liberty Annual 5k Race. Yes its true Carl and running same sentence!! Running was something that I never enjoyed in high school or college. Usually it involved some sort of discipline for having a bad game, making too many errors, etc. Well now that athletics are over I have found that I really enjoy getting out and going for a run with some friends after a long day of class. I believe it is the best stress relieving workout ever.

Anyways, today was the big day. I went to bed last night with butterflies in my stomach just thinking about this morning. Trish thought it was funny that I have played in all these big state championship games and I never got nervous before them but here I was at 5a.m. this morning absolutely FREAKING OUT about this race. I think it was because this was something new for me, I have never competed in any kind of race before, and I had no Idea what to expect.

We showed up and there were over 800 people registered in this race. I was put in the Clydesdale Under 30 group (Clydesdale is the group they put males over 195 lbs. in). I was excited I didnt have to try and beat the 140 lb. 21 yr old from Kenya. Thank God! I was still worried because some of the guys in Clydesdale were just over 200 lbs. and here I am weighing in at 228. Back to the story...Butterflies going like crazy, trying to stretch thinking I am gonna throw up. Ready to get the race over with, but excited about the opportunity to compete. Horn goes off, everybody takes off running, AC/DC blaring in my iPod, first two miles go by fast, third mile, fatigue starts setting in, still pushing hard...last turn, probably about 3/10 of a mile from the finish line. Freak of nature soccer mom pushing her 2 year old in a "racing stroller" starts to move like she is gonna pass me, competitive nature steps in and the adrenaline overpowers the fatigue and I take off. Dead sprint for the last quarter mile, a lot of friends from class come out to cheer us on, I see them running with me to the finish line. 24 min. 11 sec. Finished. Best feeling ever! Ended up taking first place in Clydesdale under 30! Couldn't believe it. My goal was to try and break 25 minutes, goal completed. Belinda, a girl from class that we have been running with, won first place in her age group females 20-24 with a time of 21:59. Incredible day! Next race July 19th, I will let you know how it goes. Here are some pictures from the race.

Before the Race.