My cousin Shannon and I heard about a local race in Buffalo called the Monster Scramble 5K/10k for MS. A Sunday where I don’t work and there’s no 1:00 football game is rare so I asked her if she’d like to do the 10k.
We debated all week and even agreed we’d pay the extra 5.00 to register race day in case we backed out.(weather very iffy this time of year) My cousin called the race director and confirmed we would get a medal and t-shirt even if we registered that day, there was no pace requirement, and were encouraged to wear a costume so we thought ok let’s do it! It’ll be fun plus a good cause.
The night before I decided to look at the previous years standings for the race. I realized quick we would be near the back of the pack. I ran this by Shannon and she hesitated at first and said oh well if we finish last we finish last.
I will say I was proud of her and of us for not being afraid or too proud to potentially be doing a race we could come in last place. That’s a fear of mine, but it was something we had to ignore or go into accepting.
Here’s a quick Dubsmash video of us when we got there. Silly girls.
Prerace was great, we signed up, there was an indoor bathroom, lots of fun costumes and a great swag bag. I love free stuff! It included a Frisbee, bracelet, sunglasses, soft lips chapstick, a ball. They also had tables set up with lots of other freebies like, water bottles, more chapstick and small first aid kits, score!!!
So we head over to the start of the race and the section for the 10k. We realize quickly there’s not too many of us there. We briefly chat with another runner wearing a Run Disney shirt (I love my fellow Disney runners) and suddenly it’s time to go.
This race took place in a cemetery. Lap 1&3 were one portion of the cemetery and 2&4 were another. Those doing the 5k did 1&2. One weird thing was as I was finishing lap 2 I literally ran through the finish line for the 5k and everyone was cheering and someone even tried to give me a medal, and I’m like no I’m doing 10k and ran past.
Mentally that was tough, talk about false hope the race was over. So now I head into lap 3&4 there are not many people around. I’m by myself for the majority. Another weird feeling during a race. Training runs you expect it but during races you usually have others near you. I finally make it to finish line that was pretty anticlimactic as I knew I was near back of pack and most 5k finishers had left. I got my medal and waited for Shannon. She came around a bend a few minutes later and I stood cheering for her as she crossed the finish line. I will say the run had volunteers dressed as monsters at the finish and they all stayed til the end cheering on which was great! We weren’t sure if we were last or not but knew it was close.
So happy we didn’t let the fear of being last hold us back. And by the way Shannon was last and I was far back there. We laughed when we saw the times. We both had great times for this race. I even got a new PR!! Regardless we had fun!!!
