Alain’s first race.
Some of you may know Alain, he is one of the most important people in my life. He is my boyfriend, and currently common-law spouse… haha.
Running this race was almost as important as my marathon. This race was Alain’s first race. He was finally going to follow me across the finish line. However, as it turns out men are faster runners, and I followed Alain across the finish line.
The race started off with a bang. Alain was excited and made the rooky mistake of sprinting off the finish line. I could barely keep up with him. Finally, I swallowed my pride and said:
– Baby, sweety, you are going pretty fast, want to slow down, you may burn out before the end of the race.
From that point on, Alain kept a good pace, not to slow and not to fast. He was fast enough that he pushed me but slow enough to conserve his energy. We flew by the first water station. At the second water station we decided to stop to have a drink. The sun was getting hot and we were getting tired. We walked for 30 seconds or a minute before we rushed off to the next stop.
At the next water station, you could tell Alain was getting tired. At every turn, I could feel his shoulders fall with a sigh, as he hoped he could see the finish line.
Soon enough, the finish line came, we could see it. I told Alain that my tradition is to sprint to the finish line at the 500 meter mark. Alain felt good, and said he would sprint too. So there we were side by side, finish line in sight, sprinting as fast as we could. You would think the marathoner, the one who trains 5 times a week would have come in first place, but no. The boyfriend did. As the clock struck 27 minutes, Alain crossed the finish line with his supporting girlfriend right behind him.
I have never been more proud.
Very proud Mom!!