Coming out of the fog

Such a honor to run for Sgt. Henry E. Irizarry. I will continue to run races in his honor. 

When you run a race and you see a BIG hill you can't help but look at it and dread it.
You know you just have to get over it but it is going to hurt like hell.
That is what Chemo is like. It is scheduled on the calendar weeks in advance, you remember the pain from the past and it looms in front of you.
I have reached the top of my second round of chemo and I am on the downhill side.  From the top I could see I was going to get through it. From the top I had planned some scenes to give me joy that I looked forward to, I just had to hang on, take it in and know that I was going to conquer another round.
This morning I woke up at 6am and felt pretty close to "Anita". Coffee didn't settle well, food didn't sound good but I felt pretty good, good enough to run the Hartland Memorial Day 10k with Lacey and Rachel. I was so excited.
And I still had my hair, sorta...
I had my hair until I went to the ladies room...OK...this is a blog of honesty...I honestly about died when I wiped myself.  And then I just laughed. Like a awkward laugh, the kind of laugh you might be having right now.

Lacey drove both Rachel and I to the race. We had matching blue shirts and skirts on. We also had our fallen soldier to pin on our backs that Lacey had laminated.
I asked the girls if they would wear a bandana with me, they were very kind and both did.

"Wear Blue to Remember"

We made it to the starting line typical obnoxious style. Having too much fun and breaking the tension at the 10K starting line. We had most of the runners laughing with us, by most I mean about 30!

Super hyped up we took off with the flare gun. I knew I was feeling good because I was hollering and throwing high fives at everyone. Hartland was still sleeping and I think they thought I was a mascot or something, they just looked at me like I was crazy. "Wake UP HARTLAND!"
Maybe I had my bandana wound too tight, Lacey thought for sure hers was, but I was wound UP!

We may have taken out a bit too fast. After all it was a FUN RUN so us girls added walk breaks, hill breaks, high five breaks...we even played tag with Mark M, an ultra runner acquaintance I saw out there racing with us.

"Team Squishy Toes" we heard as Mark M was running alongside us. We are famous!! Just kidding, we are just big goofballs with a ridiculous unofficial team name. 

We saw Danielle out there, she passed us like a gazelle doing the 5k. But that lil speedster finished her 5K caught up to her husband and then jumped in with us.

AHH, my sweet sweet Danielle, I just love everything about this girl

We had just came out of a blaring sun stretch with massive rolling hills when she joined us. We also had ran into Anthony T. another running friend of mine from several years ago.
I couldn't stop smiling.

We came into the finish line together, and just a few seconds from the guys. The Finish line also shared a very special face of one of my XC runners. "Thomas" ran the 5k and had a PR. I was so proud of him.

Can you see that big shower head in front of us, that's how hot it was getting, it was pretty cool. 

The Hartland Memorial Day 10k proved to be epic for all of us. We all medaled!

We all medaled!

 I was shocked, I got 1st place in my age group! Now remember though, the 10K was pretty quiet! But I was still pretty stoked, we all were. Great JOB Runners.

RUNDOWN:
Distance: 6.2miles
Time: 54:58
Pace: 8:51min/mi
Overall: 21/40
Female: 5/16
Female:45-49: 1/40

ANITA~

"Not all Personal Best are measured with a stopwatch." 

Terry Fox