My dad has a joke he likes to tell. What do you call the last person in a graduating medical school class? The answer? Doctor.
I was reminded of that joke today, because I thought of an alternative – What do you call the last person finishing a 10k? My answer – a 10K finisher!
It was an interesting morning – first we lost power early in the morning. It was a very quick power outage, but, of course, enough to send all of the clocks in the house into flashing 12:00 mode.
Then, on our way to the Westin Boston, my husband did a Clark W. Griswald and went by the Westin not once, but twice, trying to find the entrance to the parking garage (hint, it’s not adjacent to the Westin). When Diane and I saw each other in the lobby we laughed, because, well, we both looked like an ad for Under Armor (hey, looking the part is the first step, right?).
So, we walked over to the starting point, City Sports in Boston, got our fancy, official looking tees (yes, that is the number printed right there on the bottom), snapped this here picture, and studied the map. Which showed the race route entirely backwards. Whoops.
Then, I decided to sync my Nike + sensor. I ended up purchasing a wristband sensor on Thursday, because I didn’t want to run in the rain with my iPhone. I hadn’t synced the sensor, and after pacing the City Sports store like an idiot, I found out from someone that each sensor can only sync with one device. So, since that sensor was already synced with my iPhone, it wouldn’t work with the wristband (major fail, in my opinion).
We headed outside for a group stretch, and after checking out my fellow racers, I leaned over to Diane and casually mentioned that we would finish last. After all, neither of us had done a 10K before and could barely run a 5K last month. We were okay with that though.
On a side note – at the start of the race, I saw the trail mix guy. I won’t repeat this story here, but if you know me in real life, you probably know the trail mix guy story. I was so upset I didn’t have my phone at that point – would have loved to email a few of my friends to tell them!
Finally, the race started. Diane and I started at a slow but steady pace, and shortly after had an international tourist say, “Hey, you’re behind everyone else!”. To which I replied, “Yeah, but at least I’m running.” and Diane finished with, “Which is more than you are doing!”. And this is why we get along so well!
We ran, and walked, and ran, and walked, and quickly realized that half the group, including one of the pacers, went the wrong way. We were at the end, but were looking forward to having some water at the water stop. But when we got there? They’d ALREADY TAKEN AWAY THE WATER!!! At that point, we did what any self-respecting runner did – we stopped and walked.
And we came in LAST. DEAD LAST.
But…we finished 
Photo credit: Jen DeCesari
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you both did great for finishing, who cares if you came last, you did it and did it in style
I’m so proud of you both! Great job!
I l-o-v-e your reply to the tourist! Way to go to both of you.
Hey Jodi, I think the Asian guy who was complaining about getting lost along the way actually came in behind us — at least according to Fred.
So we weren’t last? That’s good…. for some reason I thought that guy came in before us, but if he didn’t – that’s great!
Good job. I’m proud of you. Who cares where you came in. Only 10k I could finish right now is a race in which I eat 10K fun-sized Snickers.
Yey you!!!! Congrats! A 10K is a good distance, so you must feel very accomplished. And while you may have come in last, you beat lots of people (*cough*like me*cough*) who never even tried, so kudos!!!