I'm Back!

I ran my first 5K on September 5th! Woot! It was challenging - as it was my first road race in like 6 years and I just started seriously training for it 6 weeks ago. I wanted to die the last mile. Luckily I had Mandy cheering me on and telling me I could do it. Running on the road is a lot different than running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym :) My goal was to do 12 minute miles and finish right under 36 minutes. I finished in 33:58 and I felt good about that. Toward the end Mandy's friend wanted to sprint to the end and Mandy was going to be nice and keep with me, but I told Mandy - Sprint for the end girl! Well, if I had known how close the finish was I would have put on the juice instead of slowing down at that point. I wasn't right in the mind by then. Hee, hee

Here's the starting line!
The Dapper Dans sang to us and Mickey and Minnie waved as we ran by.

However, I've been keeping about an 11:45 pace the past few weeks, so Mandy seriously shaved 48 seconds off of my pacing. She's a taskmaster. At one point she told me I could do it and I said - Not this fast I can't! And she said - We're not going fast, we're going slow. LOL She kept me going!

Modeling my number the night before

A couple funny stories from the day before in getting ready for the race. While the babies were napping my SIL Aunt H stayed with the kids (we had gone to the Lagoon that afternoon) and I took The Boy with me to go pick up my rack packet. So we get there and they want to charge me $8 to park by the hotel - so I say no way! And the parking guy tells me I can park at Downtown Disney and walk over. Well, it's full, so I go and park on some random street. The Boy isn't thrilled about having to walk so far, but he's champ about getting there. We get my packet no problem, but you have to go upstairs and get your shirt and goody bag. The Boy is excited to see all the Expo stuff, but the line is OUTRAGEOUS! The girl behind me has a friend call her and say he just cut the line and is coming to get her bib number too to do the same for her. When he comes back he tells me that I should seriously just cut up front - so I'm desperate and I do! Hey, I had a 3 year old with me and I only planned an hour total for this trip.

So we cut in line no problem, but we need to get back to the car. It is freakin' hot outside and The Boy is not thrilled with having to keep up with my speed walking this time. He cried the entire way back - except for the block when I carried him. SRSLY! He wanted to run on the grass the last little bit and I stepped in a grassed covered hole and fell - and he fell with me because we were holding hands. Then, once we got to the block where the car was I noticed a sign that said resident permit parking only!!!!!! What the???? So I start running because I don't see my car (come to realize I didn't know how far down the block we parked) and The Boy is running behind me screaming. He falls. Cries some more. Starts running again. Falls again. Cries some more. I'm sure we were quite the sight for those watching from their ghetto apartment windows.

I had promised him a treat, but we had no time, so I promised him something great when we got home. He was so thirsty so I grabbed him a bottle of water out of the trunk and hauled it home. Will was home by then and The Girl was awake. When get home I realize that since I'm not eating sweets/ice cream/cookies/cakes until the end of October, so we have nothing! However, we did have a bag of marshmallows with 5 left in it from Smores at the beach about a week ago. he's thrilled with that. ha! Perfect.

Later that night The Boy was talking to me about my race and he said, "I'm going to wait at the finish line and when you run through the ribbon I'll cheer for you and give you the winner's trophy!" When I explained that the race was really early and he was just going to stay home with daddy and The Girl, he was really sad. So I said I'd bring him a treat. When I hobbled in that morning with my banana and orange he freaked out and said, 'Thanks for bringing me my treats, mom!" Sweet.

Later we went swimming as a family and The Boy and I were sitting in the hot tub together. He put his elbows up on the side and says, "It sure is a wonderful day, mom." True dat.

Ok, there was the recap of my race. My next 5K is coming up October 9th and it's touted as "The Flattest, Fastest and "Funnest" 5K in the world!" So we will see if that is really true. I'd really love to beat my time of 33:58 and I think I can because I'll have a goal to work for. My goal for this race was just to finish and not die along the course. I've also committed myself to a 10K Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving and a 1/2 Marathon in January. It's blowing my mind that I'm saying these kinds of things, but I'm also really excited.

My goals for this week are more water! I'm really falling down on the job in that department and I know my performance is suffering because of it. I'm still on no sweets (minus one lapse for a cupcake tasting party at Cory's on Saturday night) and plan to keep it that way until Halloween. I also want to add in more whole grains. I already do only whole grain bread - but I want to cut out the crackers and such. Hmmm . . . I'll have to work on that one.