I Met the Challenge!

As you probably know, I ran a 5K race this morning.  My 4th race so far.  With Third Day playing worship music in my ears and Jesus running right beside me cheering me one (or maybe he was carrying me?).  It was a good race.


A couple days ago when I called Doug to tell him I bought pants two sizes smaller at Kohl's, he challenged me to run this race under 30 minutes with no walking.  I laughed and told him I would try but no guarantees.


Well ... I DID IT!!!


My official race time was 29:59.3! 


And I ran the entire 3.1 miles.  No walking to catch my breath.  Not that I didn't want to.  I was tempted a couple times.  Especially coming up the gravel hill in the horse farm.  That was tough!  And again near the end when there was another small hill.  Instead of walking that last hill, I pushed myself to run faster.  I even passed 2 people on that hill!


The route was fairly level except for the 2 hills I just mentioned.  We started out running into the sun, which was tricky.  Thankfully I wore my hat to shade my eyes.  We turned into a beautiful horse farm, ran to a turn-around, then came back.  We turned right again up the last hill, left onto Main Street, then left onto Roebling.  That was nice, having a down-grade toward the finish line.  Then we finished up right beside Roebling Park.


When approaching the finish line, I noticed the time was close to 30 minutes so I pushed myself to finish under 30 and I did it!  How cool is that?!

Nick took this picture of me just before the finish line.  Yeah, I know it's blurry, but it's the only one I've got.  Doug said some woman stepped in front of him just as he was taking my picture crossing the finish line.  I really need Laura to come to a race with me to get a good pic.  Maybe the next one since it will be right by her house.  (hint, hint, Laura!)  :)

Nick took this picture of me right after I finished the race.  It's not very good either.  :(  But I like to have a pic of me with my number on.  And I wore the shirt from my first 5K since it is long-sleeved.

While at the race I saw a girl that I see at the gym all the time but have never talked to.  So I talked to her.  Her name is Nicole.  My boys know her son from the play room.  She has been running for a few years now and has the body to prove it.  :)  If only my legs could look that good.  But they're not that long.  Anyway, it was nice to finally meet her and talk for a while.  She's training for a marathon (or maybe it was a half-marathon - I'm sleep deprived, so my mind isn't firing on all cylinders today).


My running buddy, Kristen, wasn't there.  Apparently she wasn't able to make it.  Perhaps something came up.  I hope to hear from her though since she has my email, but I don't have hers.


And did I mention it was freeeeeezing?  Not literally, but the temp when we left the house was 48.  Brrrrrr!  That made it nice for running, but not nice when you have 3 whiny kids who are complaining about having to get up so early and then complaining because they are cold.


Anyway, I ranked 138 out of about 200 (I always forget to look to see how many are listed).  I ranked 7th in my age group if I read the results sheet correctly.  We missed most of the awards because Doug had already left with Keira and Alex needed to go to the bathroom, so I had to take him.  We ended up leaving shortly after he was done anyway, because both Nick and Alex were whiny.  I hate whiny.  And the Arts Festival was going on in the park and the boys kept touching stuff.


So, as we've done before, we're going to take it easy ... hanging close to home today.  I'll probably take a nap shortly.  We had toasted cheese and tomato soup for lunch (YUM!).  With my belly full and a movie in to entertain the young'ns and Doug sleeping since he worked midnight (7pm-7am) last night, I don't have anything else to do.  :)


And the post-race adrenaline rush has passed.  Yeah, it's time for a nap.


:)

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