race for the cure

October 13

Over the summer I decided that I needed to take better care of myself and I started running again. I set a goal that I am going to run the Derby half-marathon this next spring. As I started running I struggled with consistency. With how busy we can get and trying to work around nap schedules, some days I wouldn't make it to the gym. After talking to Mitch about it I decided to run a 5K this fall. It was a goal to work towards right now and would be a good step towards the half. When looking at the local races I decided on the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I felt it was the best organization for my entry fee to go to :)

Mitch was really supportive and encouraged me to get to the gym when I didn't want to. The race was at a time for Mitch where he was studying for and taking his boards, but he still made sure I could get my runs in. And the day of the race, he took the girls with him while he studied for his Step 2 clinical skills test that was only days away. Thank you Mitch!

I was pretty nervous about the race. It has been a while since I have done a race. I had set 2 goals for the race. First, no walking, only running. Second, I wanted to run the 5K under 30 minutes. The morning of the race I arrived at the race area pretty early. I wanted to make sure that I could get my stuff back to my car before the race since I was doing it alone. It was a pretty cold morning and I had to put my sweatshirt in my car earlier than I wanted to. I also really wished I had worn my running pants rather than my shorts!

Before the race began they had a Survivors Parade. It was actually pretty amazing to see. All of those women had battled or are battling breast cancer. And they looked so happy! So inspiring!

During the race, I remember thinking how hard it was. I had only trained at the gym on a treadmill (I can take the kids to the playroom while I run). I was breathing hard and it felt like everyone was passing me. In my mind I kept thinking, "forget about the time, just don't stop!" Near the end of the course we had to run uphill. As I was going I noticed the runners turning to go up an even steeper hill. I thought to myself, "no way! I'm not doing that!" Then I saw the sign that said 10K, 5K runners kept going straight, where the hill ended. That gave me a little boost, I was near the end. As I was trying to finish strong I noticed a 10 or 11 year old boy next to me. He was about to pass me. There was no way I was letting him beat me, so I sprinted to the finish. And I beat him!

After the race I walked around the booths for a few minutes and drank lots of water. I felt like I had been running so slow, but then I felt like it didn't take too long to run the whole thing. When I got home I looked up on the website my results. My time was 26:20!! (that's an 8:26 min. mile). I placed 191 overall and 14th out of the women age 25-29 (these results are out of all of the 5K timed runners, not sure how many that was, but there were over 7,000 people registered for the run/walk). I was actually really proud of myself.

I have really enjoyed running more and I feel pretty good. If only I could loose a little weight faster!

After the race with my race shirt (not the greatest picture).