The Gusher, 2013 edition.

For four years, I've run The Gusher Half-Marathon.

And for three years, I've bettered my time, every year. Until this one.

According to my Garmin, I finished in 2:03:10, which is about 3 minutes slower than last year's time. I was fifth in my age group -- not sure how many women that was because I left before they put all the results up.

I'm trying to get upset about that, but try as I might, I just can't.

I will be 41 years old in less than two weeks.

Eight years ago, I weighed more than 210 pounds.

Eight years ago, the most exercise I got was literally walking to the refrigerator for more food.

Eight years ago, I would have laughed at you if you suggested I run or lift weights or ride bikes or take exercise classes. I would have called you a fool had you hinted that in a few short years, I'd be doing exactly that.

So I can't be too upset about my time. It's better than what I did in Fort Worth two weeks ago. It's better than what I could have done eight years ago. It's fairly consistent with my training runs and my Gusher run last year.

I am very competitive and I rarely fail at what I attempt. And while I realize that this is most certainly not a failure, part of me wants to call it that.

But I'm refusing.

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I know what I did wrong. I started off way, way, way too fast. I averaged a little less than 8-minute miles the first four miles. If I had backed off at the beginning, then I could have pushed a little more at the end and gotten in under two hours.

My baby brother Jason ran The Gusher Marathon, though, and he and I ran those first four miles together. Then I couldn't keep up any more and had to drop back.

I've never run with my brother. He took up running probably around the same time I took it up for the second time. (We were even wearing the same color shirt, so we were twins!)

So I'm kind of OK with the way that worked out. :-)