I kind of want to sing the theme song from Dora here. We did it! We did it! We did it! Hooray!
Our first 5K is officially over and done. Whew!
Our morning started at 6:30. With a bit of prodding, we were out the door just after 7:00 on o
ur way to the race. The fun part was being able to just walk down to the starting line. You can't beat a race right down the street. Way fun!
We got our numbers and our timing chips (having gotten our t-shirts on Saturday) and were all set to go by 7:30. We checked out the starting line and the finish line then waited anxiously for the race to begin.
They started with a 1K race. That was fun to watch. There are some good little racers in training among those little kids. A couple minutes after the 1K race started, so did the 10K race. Those were the serious runners. I'm definitely not ready to be a part of that group!
Finally came our turn. We made our way down to the starting line, weaved between the giggling girls and strollers and dogs and found a nice hole to fill in the group of runners. And we were off!
I didn't see my kids again until the finish line.
We were all sure Becca would smoke us all. She's been the fastest runner in the last month of practices. Well guess what? She found a "buddy" to run with and went at her buddy's pace, not her own! I have no problem with Becca finding a buddy to run with. In hindsight, I should have expected it! She had a grand old time chatting away with her new friend. It made for a fun race for her.
Tyler was a little tired this morning, so he didn't run the entire thing as planned. He mostly ran, then would walk a bit, then took off running again. He was happy to simply finish the race. He also got a medal for finishing third in his age group! Not bad for a kid who didn't even run it all. (We thought Becca got third in her age group too, but it turns out when final results were in that she was just a bit short.)
Rachel was the surprise of the day. She finished 11th in her age group, but she finished a full 5 minutes before any of the rest of us, and 7 minutes before me! Two weeks ago we had to almost DRAG her out and she cried half the time we were running. Now today she was out ahead of all of us, going faster than she's ever gone! She was the first one to mention our "next" race.
That leaves me, the slow poke. I know I'm a slow runner. I need a few more weeks (or months) of training to get my speed up. I was around people who would jog a little then walk a little then jog a little more, and even though I jogged the entire way, I never could seem to get ahead of them. But that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that a woman a good 30 pounds heavier pushing a double stroller finished ahead of me. It doesn't matter that the group of girls who were more interested in talking and walking their dogs finished before me. It doesn't matter that I finished 21st out of 23 runners in my age group. None of that matters. I went out there and did MY best. I jogged the entire way without walking or stopping. 2 months ago jogging for 60 seconds about killed me, and today I ran my first official 5K race without stopping! My best may look mediocre compared to others, but to me it is a huge accomplishment and I can't be anything but pleased at what I was able to do today.
I may take the rest of the week off from jogging, but we're already talking about our next race. We haven't decided for sure what race we're doing next, but we are doing another, and we're sure even talking about the Disneyland 5K next year! Jenn, will you meet us there and run it with us? :D
(Don't tell anyone, but I might even train to run a 10K...)
I want to give a HUGE thank you to Scott who has been such a support in all of our training, and to Mom and Dad who came out to watch us cross the finish line today!
