Give it all!

Last Saturday my mom convinced me to run a 5K to the Hollywood sign. I was not very happy about it because I don't enjoy running as much as she does, but she was dying to run a race in LA and take home a medal, so she convinced me.

My mom runs half marathons. I don't. When I went to Colombia two years ago for summer I ran my first 5K (once again convinced by her) and I have to admit the experience was not the best. It was raining the entire time and I was literally freezing. Plus we couldn't find our driver on our way out, so I almost became an iceberg. Now it sounds funny, but let me tell you that it wasn't for me at that time. I was completely wet and my lips were purple. We didn't have a cell phone or money, so imagine that. It took us about one hour to find him. The good part? I was happy with the time I did. 27:57min was not bad for a first time running -I think my madness and desire to finish because of the rain made me run faster.

This time I was more scared because I knew this 5K were going to be harder as some parts were going to be uphill. Bad luck follows me everytime I decide to run a race, so one more time, it started to rain. I have to admit this rain was NOTHING compared to the one in Colombia. It rarely rains in LA so it was just little drops once in a while so I didn't complain much. This race was much smaller as well, so I had higher expectations with the results.

I was in the front when it started and was the first one for the first minutes. The problem came when nobody knew the road so we were kind of lost. There were not signs at all so all of a sudden we realized we did like a circle and got to the starting point again. Everyone was pretty mad. The organizers told us to go left in the curve, so we continued running one more time.

We got lost again. We took an uphill road that got everyone exhausted and all of a sudden someone turns around and says: "this is the wrong way, again." I was exhausted at that time. I followed him and started telling everyone to turn around as well. I was pissed at this time. But I just wanted to be done, so I gave all of me to get to the right place and finish the race.

When we finally find the road I felt better. It was half of the race going uphill and the other half going down. I was already worried for the results because I didn't know if they were going to be alright as in a moment we went back to the starting point and I didn't know if that messed up the running chip. Anyways, I knew I was in the first group of people because you could see them on their way down after reaching the middle point. I didn't see more than 10 people before I got there, so on my way down I gave it all.

Some people passed me, and I passed other people. I wanted to get to the finish line. I could see the people waving at the end and I had two women in front of me. We were almost there and we were all tired. I knew they couldn't hear me behind, so when I saw the finish line I started running a lot faster and passed both of them -as you see, I am very competitive in these kind of things.

But this is the reason why I don't trust the final results that much. It took forever for them to put them online, and when they did, I saw that the two people who finished after me were two men, instead of the two ladies that I passed during the race.

Anyways, I'm happy with the results and the position I got was the one I was expecting. According to them, I got the 11th place in 42:19min.

Be healthy, be happy, be you!

Atom Ant