Well, I'll be wearing my new t-shirt tomorrow!!!! I posted on the BL thread, but rambled, so I figured I'd copy and post it here too. I guess it's my first race report!!!
I ran my first 5K!!!!!!
It was really so amazing. A friend of mine did it too, and we met a few other women we knew, so when we got to the park it was nice to chat with them. My sister came with her two kids and watched Michael for me. This was a womans run for a scholarship fund for this woman Louise Rossetti who's daughter was brutally killed in 1981 at the age of 26. Louise started running to deal with her loss, so on the way up to the starting line, I met her and said hello, and then I started to cry (for the first time). Of note, I am a cry-er. The death of my mom is a year ago the 26th, and I've really tried to focus on the running to help keep me from turning to food, so I got it together, and we laughed because my sister and friend are also cry-ers, and Karen my friend said, oh, you must be irish.
We went to the back of the starting line, and the race began, and we ran by Michael and gang, and I was going a little faster than I should, and getting very short of breath, so I slowed down, and walked for a bit, and thought, what was I thinking to even attempt this, but I plugged away, walking and jogging, and when I hit one mile there was a man there telling us our times, and I was at 13.30 seconds, which is faster than I usually go, so that really pumped me up to keep at it, and mile 2 I was at 28 something. My goal was to finish, but I really wanted to finish below 45 minutes since I usually average 15-16 minutes per mile, so when I had one mile left and it was only 28 min gone, I was so excited, and thought I was going to make it in less than 45.
The last 100 yards or so, is down the driveway of the park and to the finish line, and I could hear everyone cheering, and I started to get teary again before I even got down there, but I kept it together, and ran the rest through the crowd, and saw Michael and the others who had finished, but once I went past them, I saw 43 min on the time clock, and was psyched. I went through and got some water, and composed myself, and went caught up with them. My time was 43:19 with a pace of 13.57 min/miles. I came in 357th out of probably 367 runners, but I don't care. I finished what I set out to do, did better than I thought I could, and am so proud of myself. I went faster than I have ever gone. I set my first PR, and am so excited.
Now, that feeling in the first mile of "what was I thinking?" is now completely gone and replaced with, "when can I do another race?"
I want to thank all of you here for all the support, encouragement, and inspiration you have given me.