My First 5k

All throughout my Up and Running 5k course, Julia Jones, our coach, told us we would not die.  No matter how we felt, we would not die.  Well, this is only partially true.  It is true, of course, that physically I am still very much alive.  But to say that part of me didn't die would be a lie.  Today, the part of me who said I could not do this, the part of me that saw me as ugly or not-good-enough, was squashed.  That part of me is very much dead.  In its place is a loud voice that is cheering me on, screaming YOU CAN DO THIS!!!  And guess what.  I did.

I had my alarm set for 6:00 am, but I was up at 5:30.  I wanted to go!  A few months ago, I would have been doing this:

Instead, I was getting dressed, eating my banana, and letting myself get super worked up.  Would I be the last one to finish?  Would I meet my goal(s)?  My main goal was to finish without walking, but I was also really hoping to be under 40 minutes, preferably closer to 35 minutes.

Hans and I arrived at the site at 7:20, and I spent the next 35 minutes warming up and chatting with other runners.  We'd found out the night before that Cody was allowed to run with me, so Cody was there attracting attention from everyone (and keeping me sane). 

At 7:58 I was on the starting line.

See Cody?

At 8:00 a.m. the race started.  I tried as hard as I could to start out slow.  I'd seen some massive hills the night before, and in fact one of the roads was named Hillside Dr. 

As people passed me, I had this overwhelming fear that I'd finish last.  I couldn't hear people behind me.  Are there any people there??

At one point, I saw Hans cheering me on.  Cody saw Hans too.  Actually, that was the only snafu.  He wanted to get to Daddy!

Daddy?

Then the rains came.  There was thunder and big, fat rain drops.  It was very cold and sent shivers through my body.  I continued on.

Finally, I saw the finish line.  I ran as hard as I could.  As I entered the chute, I saw Hans ready to take a picture.  Unfortunately, the camera didn't click, so I don't have the wonderful picture of me going through the finish line.  There was probably too much water on the lens. 

At that point, the heavens opens up.  I like to say that God was raining his praises on me.  :P  I was planning on leaving just to get out of the rain, but Hans said I should stay for the awards.  I thought, "Well, maybe they'll have a little something for all of the participants."

I was wet and cold by this point, but I was happy to be supporting all of the super-fast runners who placed first, second, and third.  Imagine my surprise when we got to the Women age 24-29 category and they called my name for the 3rd place ribbon!!!!  My first-ever 5k, and I won a ribbon!!!!!!

I am very, very happy!!!

I ran the whole way.  Goal #1 complete.  My time was 35:25.  Goal #2 complete.  I completely rocked it!  Goal #3...Yay!!!!