My First 5K

Several of you know that I have been sloooooowly getting into the sport of running. I have been "training" (I guess you can call it that) for about 6 weeks. (It may be longer than that. I really can't remember. Since March or April, I have decided about once a month to be a runner. I would run for a week and then be done. But, several weeks ago, I really got serious about it.) So, I started off by running 2 minutes, walking 3mins until I reached 30 minutes. Then, week by week just kept increasing the run/decreasing the walk by 1 minute. Last week, Philip and I drove my running route (which has to change each week when I increase the run) and set the odometer on my car to see how far I've been going. I was SHOCKED to find out it was 2.8miles!!! I knew that a 5K was 3.1 miles, so I decided that would be my new goal. (The first goal was to run consistently for 5 weeks which I then rewarded myself with new running shoes).



On Monday of this week, I found a 5K set for today. I knew the area, so the "fear of the unknown" was eliminated. I also loved where the money went for. In short, in August of 2008 a 14month old baby girl, Hannah, was diagnosed with a rare malignant cancer. She fought a hard battle with many surgeries until December '08 when she lost that battle. (Please read her story here). So, a pediatric cancer foundation was started in her memory and that's where the money goes that is raised from this 5K.



Hannah's story touched my heart deeply for 2 reasons:

1. My baby boys are the same age now as Hannah was when she was fighting her battle last year.


2. A friend & sorority sister from college, Anna, is currently going through a similar fight with her little guy, Ian. Cute baby Ian is 4 months older than my baby boys, so my heart just breaks for her. (Please go to Ian's caring bridge page by clicking here).

Even though a 5K was going to be a bit farther than I'm used to running, I wanted to do it for those reasons.

I started dreading it yesterday. Telling myself I couldn't do it and why did I sign up in the first place? Philip sweetly reminded me last night that it wasn't about me. It was about raising money for pediatric cancer. That was just what I needed to hear!

I had 2 goals for this race:

1. to finish


2. not to be the last person to finish

I am SO PROUD to say that I accomplished both of those goals! I don't know what my time was but I am guessing somewhere around 36 minutes, which is completely what I expected. I got very tired around mile 2. I couldn't see the finish line. Also couldn't see my 4 boys who were cheering me on (Emma Kate was at gymnastics).... But I pushed through and did it!!! Around the last minute or two, I couldn't see any runners behind me, so I was fearful that I was going to be last so I kicked it up several notches! I trotted past 3 other runners to cross the finish line ahead of them. Found out later that there were many runners still out there who had yet to finish, but it still felt good to pass those other runners in the last minute!

I designated Eli as the photographer. I should have gotten all the settings on the camera right before I started (lighting, sports mode, etc...) but I didn't even think about that. So, these pictures aren't the best quality.

That is me in the back right of the picture. Brown shirt, pink skirt. (you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

Coming up at the end of the 1st lap. This was the first time I could see all 4 of my boys so that smile was in fact genuine! I was so happy to see them!
I thought this was funny. I also seriously wondered around mile 2.5 if I was going to need it....
Crossing the finish line....
Philip and Eli were so proud of me! Philip has been very supportive of me meeting my goals. I'm not sure Zane and Zander were proud of my accomplishment, but they were proud to see their momma! (I left this morning before they were awake).

Closing this post with Eli's comment to me as we were going home: "Mom, you did good the first time around but you were really slow the 2nd time around. It took you a long time."