4 for 4 PR's and I'm a what???

First off, I want to brag on my bride. She entered her first ever indoor triathlon last week and she crushed it! She won the overall female beginner division! I am really happy and proud for her!

Second thing is this, I know this picture as nothing to do with anything I will blog about, but I love this picture and wanted to somehow work it into a post, but was having trouble, so this picture is in this post because it is simply awesome!

Thirdly, when in the heck did I come into the Master's division? I need to give you some background data first I guess, so please continue reading, then we will address me being in the Master's group.

At the end of 2011, I was asked to be the wellness captain for Memphis for my company. They knew of my love for running and exercise and figured I would be a good fit, so I accepted! One of the things I tackled head-on, was getting everyone to commit to doing a 5k race. I started putting this together in January by getting the word out and there was alot of interest. The next thing I did was to pick a race I figured everyone could get behind and support. The race I choose was the Race for Life 5K, a race against childhood obesity. we had approximately 30 people sign up from work and I would say that about 25 of them had never run 3 miles before, or much less ever run a race. So this race was small enough that no one felt intimidated. I really think that everyone had a great time running and it was a huge success for everyone.

As for my race, it went well. I did feel some pressure from everyone to do well since I was the organizer and I wasn't sure if I would race this competitively or as a fun run. Once we lined up to start the race, my adrenaline kicked in and I knew I was going to race it.

So I took off and ran. I ran hard. I finished 5th overall and 1st in my Age Group! My time was 23:43, which is a new PR for me!  4 for 4 in 2012!!! It felt awesome also! So of course, I waited around for the awards ceremony to hear my name called!

So of course, they started out with the overall winners, like they normally do, then they should have gone on to Age Group winners, but they didn't. After the Overall winner, she said this." Now we are giving the award for the Master's Category" Again, it didn't bother me until the next few words came out of her mouth. "This is the 40 and over winner". Crap. Master's winner? Really? When did I hit the Master's division? I thought that was 50 and up. I mean I was grateful to win my AG, and I was thrilled to set a PR, but calling me Master's winner hurt. (no offense to anyone over 50).

So once my name was called, I went up to get my award. I expected a certificate, but instead, I got an exercise ball, a $20 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods, a 1st place medal and a plaque of my win! SCORE!!! I had never won anything like this before, so it was major cool!