When I went to Good Counsel (class of 1994) the school was in Wheaton, MD. A few years ago the school moved to a beautiful campus in Olney, MD. I was sad to see the old school demolished and condos and townhouses built in their place, but the more time I spend at the new school, the more I appreciate the move. The new school is just beautiful and has so much that GC students need both in the classroom and on the athletic field.I wasn’t a runner in high school. In fact, I was on the girls lacrosse team for a few years and every day before practice we would run a few miles though the surrounding neighborhoods and I believe that I was the last girl to finish just about every single time. Despite how miserable I found running to be, I kept going back. It wasn’t until halfway through college that I found that with a little practice, running could be enjoyable and something to do to clear my head after class. Since college, I have done a lot of triathlons, but not too many running races. I really don’t think that until today I had ever even done a 5K run that wasn’t part of a triathlon.
I showed up to GC on a very windy morning. Temps were in the 40s but the wind was just terrible. We all huddled in the building next to the stadium waiting for the race to start. I got a chance to catch up with a few classmates…Rob, fellow saxophone player, James, also Class of 1994.
They moved us over to the parking lot and told us that they would begin some group stretching. A few minutes later we heard someone yell “GO” over a speaker. Yikes! I wasn’t even near the start line! It took about a ½ mile before I got around all the high schoolers and made my way towards the front. With only 3.1 miles to run, I really didn’t care about pacing. I just decided that since my legs felt good (with marathon recovery well behind me) that I would just go for it and see how long I would sustain a fast pace. The whole current girls lacrosse team was out there and I didn’t want to finish last again. Those days are over…
For those of you familiar with Olney, the course went out to 108 and turned left. We ran along the path to Hallowell, ran through the neighborhood, and then made our way back to 108 back to the school. We definitely had a headwind on the way out so it was nice to have the wind pushing us to the finish. When I got about halfway I saw a few lacrosse players and just tried to catch them. I did, but they later passed me back and finished a few seconds ahead of me.
My legs felt great through the whole race which was nice considering that they have been beat up for the better part of the last two weeks. I didn’t think I’d have much speed, but found it in there somewhere. I really did feel like my legs were setting the pace and my body was having a hard time keeping up. I probably ran a little slower the final mile, but finished in about 26 minutes which was around 8:20 pace. I’m totally happy with the effort.
After the race I cheered in a few friends and then as I was walking over to the raffle/awards area I ran into Bill who also swam at GC and was a few years ahead of me. We both took 1st place in the 31+ age group which was pretty cool. I’ve never won an award at a running race and even though there weren’t too many adults there running, it was cool to win something. And as a bonus, I also heard my name called for a raffle prize and I got a $25 gift card to Giant. I guess I’ll be buying the next round of groceries…or 25 boxes of peeps! I definitely didn’t show up to beat people, but it was nice that only about 3 members of the girls lacrosse team finished ahead of me. It felt good not to be the last lacrosse player back to the school!
