Last weekend I was able to mark something off my somewhat non existent bucket list. I ran my first 5k!!! I say my first, because it most definitely won't be my last. In the 2 weeks leading up to the race, I honestly wasn't sure I was going to be able to do it. I hadn't been able to run because of my shins and I was starting to get nervous. Becky introduced me to the glorious world of KT Tape and I haven't had any problems since. The first time I ran all taped up, I went 1 mile and felt great. The next night I went back out there and had only planned on going 2 miles at the most. Something just clicked after I finished that first mile and I knew I was just going to go ahead and run that extra 1.1 miles.
Slow was the name of the game that night, but I finished that 3.1 miles..in 40 minutes!! I felt so much better knowing that I could 100% say that I COULD do it. Whether everyone else flew past me or not, I knew I would at least finish running the whole thing.
Sunday morning rolled around and we were ready to go! As I was getting in the car, Matt stuck his head out the door, with his fist in the air and said, "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose." And I fell in love with him all over again. He knows my obsession with Friday Night Lights and that literally made me that much more excited for the race! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and you could feel the excitement in the air. I think they said there were about 15,000 people there...it was packed! We were in the 2nd wave and I am so glad, because watching that first wave go was hard enough. I can't imagine being one of the last waves to go. As soon as we got started, we rounded the corner and had a HUGE hill to go up. For someone who had only ran 3 miles for the first time in her entire life 30 hours previous to that, it was not a great way to start out the race! HA! My shins felt great throughout, though, which was my biggest concern. My sides started aching around 2.5 miles, but there was no way I was going to stop! I can easily say my favorite part of the race is when they would squirt color on you. It was a powder (cornstarch based) concoction that tasted horrendous, but it was still so much fun! It definitely gave you something to look forward to. Oh, I take that back. My absolute favorite part was nearing the finish line and looking for my boys. You want to know what is bad? I never saw them. Here I am waving at April's best friend, Mary Beth, and they were RIGHT BESIDE HER! I never even saw them. It kind of makes me sad, but there is always next time ;)
As soon as we rounded that corner, we sprinted the rest of the way to the finish line. I was SO excited to be done! HA! I was feeling pretty rough and come to find out it was because we had finished in about 33 minutes. Umm.. that was 7 minutes shaved off of my previous time. No wonder I was hurting! Thankfully, I ate a granola bar and felt better in about 10 minutes. I hate that I struggled a little bit throughout, but it just gives me motivation to keep on going.
Matt said that Connor stood at the gate that held the crowd back for a good 20 minutes asking where I was. Just picturing that made my heart burst! I didn't get emotional about finishing my first race until I started looking for them. It meant the WORLD to me that they were there to cheer me on.
I'm so glad that I had signed up for this race before starting to train. If you want some real motivation, that is the way to do it. I was also glad that I had these ladies to run it with. Although I look like a giant up against those petite things!
As soon as I walked up to where the boys were, Connor ran up to me with his arms open screaming, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!" and literally stopped just short of hugging me as he saw the color all over me. He was NOT a fan of that and would barely look at me!
Since we weren't going to stay around for the after party, we decided to throw our color packets up ourselves. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we had stayed for that, because what you see in the picture is only 3 little packets.
As Matt was heading back to the car, he said they could hear the cheering and you can see the color going up. It looked like a smoke bomb! I don't know whose idea this run was, but it was genius!
Connor with D-Daddy and Cade with Uncle Josh. Those boys sure are loved!!
Just looking at these pictures again makes me so excited to do another one! I've already got 2 on my radar.. one in December and another in January. The one in December is called the Jingle Bell Run and people dress up as Christmas characters. YES, PLEASE!!! Now, I just have to convince Matt to (a)run it with me and (b)to dress up. HA!
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