this saturday morning i woke up feeling a bit nervous and excited. for the past 9 weeks i've trained to run this 5k race. i have never ever run a race. about 3 years ago i did a summer training program where i learned to run for 20 minutes. in that 20 minutes i never even made it to 2 miles. and well, that was 3 summers ago...
so i took the challenge....and the day had arrived. i enjoyed my normal cup of coffee and and made an english muffin with peanut butter. then my friend arrived and we were off.
it was a chilly morning, but sunny. the place was busy and there were a lot of people i knew there. the excitement was definitely in the air. we signed in and pinned our numbers on. we stretched a little. we talked a little. we waited. we grinned. we lined up. we positioned ourselves near the back, just in front of the walkers. we had timed ourselves on thursday so i could tell if we were running a good pace or not.
they yelled go and we were off....we giggled with excitement and anticipation! those 10k men were crazy runners. of course they were over 6 feet tall with long legs and super skinny. our goal was to not get lapped and not be last.
at one mile we were right on pace. we headed down to the river trail. it was a gorgeous morning...as we headed up the hill to go under the covered bridge our hubbies and kids cheered us on.
then we hit mile 2. still going strong. if i remember right, my friend had developed those nasty side aches...but she stayed strong. we came back through the bridge to hear our families once again cheer us on.
the final stretch...i realized we were actually ahead of our pace from thursday. not much, but ahead. we had added some distance due to a missed turn on our trial run. so i was feeling pretty good. i asked if she could push it and she said not yet...fine by me...
we turned to the final stretch...as we came around the sledding hill the finish line was in sight. she said she was ready for that final push so off we went...well, she thought she might throw up so being the good friend i was i said "okay..." and ran ahead a few steps. i don't like throw up at all...
in the end we crossed together...at 33:58 a full 31 seconds faster than our thursday run!! she finished second in her age bracket...i came in 1 minute behind the girl that finished 3rd in mine. i felt pretty good! we were not last at all and we never got lapped.
so i need to confess...i had said in the days leading up to the race that this was exciting but doubted i'd do another. well....there is something about coming through that shute and having a time called out and realizing what i just did!!! so, yes, this is now officially my first race, but not my last!!!!
thanks to all my friends who made me stick with it, thanks to my hubby who encouraged me and cheered me on, thanks to my kids who came to watch in the cold, and many thanks to my good friend that ran by my side til the end!! let's do it again.....
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