[thehappyrunner]: I'm officially a Master!

I turned 40 in July and not only did I enter a new age category (40-44) but I also graduated to being a "Master" which simply means a runner over age 40. And I am excited to say that I won my first race as a Master! :D

There is a huge Christmas lights display by our house every year at the lake and they have a race through the lights before they officially open. I didn't know about the race last year but was really excited to run it this year. I was a little nervous because I knew that it was on a Sunday night and I always do my long training runs on Sunday mornings. So I asked a few of my friends what I should do and they told me to train as usual and then run the race but not to worry about it too much because the race is not important but the training is. So that's what I was thinking as I went into the race. But as soon as the gun fired, I had different plans. I was feeling good so I just ran it as fast as I could. I knew I was making good time and there were only a few girls ahead of me. One lady passed me that I thought might be in my age group so that upset me a little but she ended up being way younger so all was good. This picture is me just about to cross the finish line. I think the smile is because the race was over. I was soooo out of breath!

And then when the results were posted, I looked in my age group and didn't see my name. I was pretty upset because I thought that maybe my timing chip didn't work because the fastest time in my age group was almost 3 minutes slower than I knew I had run it. And then I realized that maybe I needed to look in a different spot. And so I looked at overall winners and saw my name. I was almost crying. So excited! I've never won any kind of sporting event! My official time for the 5K was 21:55 but I think the course was a little short.

Needless to say, I was a happy runner! And it was a fun night. My family was there and I saw a bunch of my friends (there were lots of my students there in strollers walking through the lights).