The race...

In a nut shell the race was awesome!  I ran the whole damn thing! Which I wasn't exactly expecting to be able to do. I run every other day for 30-45 minutes. But there is some walking in there too. So I guess I expected to do some walking like I usually do. I don't really have a plan to my *training*, mostly to just keep moving, sweat a fair amount and feel good about myself when I'm done. For the race I decided I would run until I felt like I needed to walk and then run some more. At one point I realized I'd been running for awhile and being familiar with the route I knew it had been more than 1/2 way. I was feeling good and just kept running. And then I got to the 2 mile mark and just kept running. And then I began to think I could probably run the whole thing. At the home stretch I began to tear up because I was about to finish running the WHOLE THING! O and Morgan were at the finish but Morgan's phone had run out of charge so there are no pictures of me running! Just this one of me and O at the end. Owen wanted to know what had taken me so long! And they hadn't even been there the whole time.

 

This is the first race I've run the entire way since before Owen was born. After I got pregnant I stopped running and haven't been able to pick it back up until last fall.  And while 3.1 miles doesn't seem like a long distance to a lot of runners, to me it's an accomplishment. As I mentioned before I have never considered myself an athlete let alone a runner and now I am. And I'm proud of that. My pace is some people's walking pace but I don't care about that either. Given time and some weight loss I'm sure I will get faster but my goal is not to be the winner. I always just want to finish and not be last.

Just some fun facts about the race. It was 3˚ when the race started. For my celsius friends that is -16˚. What I have on in the picture above is what I wore for the race, plus a pair of running gloves. The magenta top is fleecy on the inside. I was comfortable. Not too hot, not too cold. And below is a little alteration I made to the top to accommodate my phone. I used a piece of fabric from my running pants (they needed to be shorted) to stick a pocket onto the running top. My running pants have a very small pocket just large enough for a key and my ipod.

 

Voila! Pocket for my iPhone. It was very handy. Even though Morgan thought it looked ridiculous! My sister will appreciate my ingenuity! Those are not my usual running pants!

 And lastly, my pre-race breakfast. Greek yogurt, blueberries and granola. I like to eat light before I run. Most days I don't eat at all before I run.

My next race, another 5K, is in April. Hopefully it will be warmer than 3˚ by then!