Friday night the hubby went out to meet up with some friends and I stayed at my mom's with little lady and planned a good night's sleep. I was exhausted and in bed at 9:30. I vaguely remembered hubby slipping into bed later. I slept so good. I went to check my clock at the next time I was slightly awake and it was 7:56am! Are you kidding me?!? We never all sleep this late. Hubby woke up as I was checking my clock and he went to check on little lady. I didn't feel super panicked when I woke up. My mom had said we planned on getting to the race around 9am. We were all (hubby, mom, grandma, aunt, uncle, little lady and myself) riding together in grandma's van to help with parking. For some reason though, in my mind, I kept thinking we had to leave at 9.
I got out of the bedroom and my mom was rushing around and mentioned we would be leaving at 8:30 to get there at 9. I kicked it into high gear and quickly realized I would not be having a relaxing morning. I started drinking some water and got myself into my race gear. I quickly got little lady dressed and put some snacks (for little lady) and a Clif bar(for me) into a bag for the race. I made some coffee to drink in route and ran over to my grandma's (she lives 2 houses down from my mom) to put little lady's gear in the car. We headed over to pick up my aunt and uncle while I enjoyed my coffee and got a little realxing in.
It was pretty cold out Saturday morning so once we got parked and found the starting line my mom, aunt, uncle, grandma and little lady went back to the car to keep warm while hubby and I wandered around. This was the point that race day nerves kicked in for me. I just sort of paced in circles for about a half hour and ate my breakfast Clif. My uncle joined us in the cold for a bit and we all chatted. Then, it was time for the 10k runners to line up. I said my goodbyes and good lucks to my hubby and uncle and headed to the start line. This is were the nerves really kicked in. This was a small race and there were less than 300 runners in the 10k. I realized there was a chance that most of these people were much more experiences than me. I started worrying about being dead last. I had to keep reminding myself that this was my race and I was ready.
We took off and I felt good- even with the feeling that everyone was passing me up. Once we all got into our own space and I found my rhythm, I felt good. I felt even better after the first 3 miles. I ran without my headphones and really wished that I had brought them because it was a little boring to run that long without music, but at the same time I really felt like I was part of the group. I wasn't nearly as slow as I was imagining because there was a little group of us that were running similar paces together. There was a mom pushing a double stroller with 2 kids! I talked to her for a minute and was super impressed with her since I die just pushing one small child.
The course was pretty fun too. It was at a park that we used to swim at when we were little. The course started along the water, then cut along a trail through the woods, over a path in the grass and up and down some dirt hills. It was a little more intense than my flat paved trail, but not to challenging.
I had three goal for myself: 1. just finish 2. run the whole thing 3. finish in less than 1:15:00. I did all three! I ran the until 10k in 1:08:26! I was so proud! It felt amazing. I started to feel tired around 5.5 miles. We quickly got to the end portion and I could hear an announcer. I picked it up a little and was feeling good. As we got back to the parking lot, I could see the crowd. I scanned the people for my family and saw hubby up ahead waving at me. I ran to him and high fived him as he kept yelling, "Keep going! You're gonna do this!" I turned the corner and cooked it for the tunnel. Hubby quickly ran back through the crowd to meet me at the end. I heard the announcer say my name and found hubby with his hand out again. I high fived him once more and was shuffled through to the 10k finishers area. I got my first racing medal!
I found hubby once more and gave him a huge sweaty hug and asked where my family was. He said that he hadn't found them yet, but thought maybe they were back in the car. We wanted to find the official times before we headed to the car so we started walking around. I happened to look back towards the people still running in and noticed my mom on the course. We bolted through the crowds to cheer her on through the finish line. My aunt was just ahead of her and we learned that my uncle was still out there.
I spent some time in my head trying to figure out how they were still out there after I managed to finish my 10k. I hadn't really thought about what time they would be done since the 5k left at 10:15. Again I seemed to have forgotten the concept of time and didn't realize that if there would be a chance we would finish around the same time. My mom, aunt, and uncle walked the 5k. My mom and aunt finished in less than an hour and my mom beat her last time by 2 minutes!
We found our times and headed back to the car to find my grandma and little lady. (Grandma was keeping little lady safe while we got our run on.) I was feeling super amazing, but hubby was bummed. He was super proud that he had actually ran the whole 5k this time (last one he ran and walked through) and thought he did amazing. He saw his time was about 35 minutes and was super disappointed. (last one was just under 30) He didn't say much about the run all day, but I could tell he was very disappointed. When we got home on Sunday, we had an email that the 5k turn around was off and the course was a little longer than it should have been and that they updated the times. His finishing time stayed the same, but his pace went from about 11:30 min/mile to 9:52 min/mile. It would have been under 30 minutes! He is amazing!
I am so proud of myself and my family for our run adventures!
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| I wore this shirt Saturday and Sunday and of course the medal! |
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