Border Run

I woke up early on the morning of July 4th to run for the border. After years of living on the Mexican International border, it was ironic that this border run was to Idaho. I signed up to run the 10K while my cute nieces signed up for the mile run and the 5K with their parents. At the last minute we had to make a couple change of plans and we decided that Hannah would start the 5K by herself and John would catch up to her in a few minutes. When the gun when off at the start of the race, Hannah looked up at me with tear filled eyes and said, "I don't want to run by myself." I realized that Hannah's feelings were far more important than my race so I ran the 5K with her.

Hannah was my first running partner ever. I usually choose to run on my own. She was a great companion. She felt bad that I was missing my race but I told her it was my decision and I didn't feel bad at all. John caught up to us and Hannah kept us at a pace that I was pushing to keep up with. She's a fast little girl!

She beat me across the finish line by a few seconds. I tried keep the race officials from scanning my race number but they did anyway. The problem is the fact that I signed up for the 10K and ran the 5K. According to the computer I ran the 10k in 31 minutes. That is like Olympic trial speed. I was the overall winner of the 10K. When I explained my dilemma, one guy was mad, while the other guy looked me on the eye and said, "You did the right thing."

That day I learned that it's not about how fast you run the race, it is all about how you run it.