Kicked My Own Booty

Ugliest race T-shirt ever!  I wore it with pride all day long!

I ran in a Mother's Day race this weekend.  I had a few friends who said they would do it with me, but then for various reasons they all backed out.  It is so much easier to get friends to eat and drink with you than is it is to get them to exercise with you!  I can't blame them though; I wasn't sure I was gonna stick with running it either.  I had nobody to watch my kids.  Then I thought, wait a minute I have a nearly 13-year-old child who is capable of watching his brothers for a short time.  So, I took a drive out to check out where the race was being held to make sure it was a safe location and ended up registering.

I started the race, and exactly like last time, before I was even a 1/10 of a mile in, I thought I can't do this.  I don't know why that is?  Because my body does not like running in the morning?  Because my brain does not like the thought of HAVING to run 3 miles without the option to stop?  But the race had started, and my brain was right, stopping was not an option, and so I ran on.  I recently started using a Nike+ app on my ipod.  It keeps track of how far I have gone and very half-mile it tells me my pace.  It is kinda fun.....unless you are running a race and it is telling you your pace is slower than your normal jog around the neighborhood pace.  My goal was to beat my first 5K time, 34:09.  At the rate Nike+ was telling me I was running, I was not going to beat my time.  How deflating, but still I ran.  I saw my kids waiting for me near the finish line, I smiled, gave them the thumbs up sign, then I looked up and the timer said 29:17.....WHAT?????  No more smiling and waving; I had to get to the finish line before it hit 30:00!!!!

Final time 29:28.5 seconds.  I totally kicked my own ass, and I was so excited!  Finished 87th of 219 runners, 8th female in my age group of 26 women.  And it was so much fun!!  Party atmosphere.  Great  people. Amazing weather.  A BBQ by the pool afterwards.  Could not have been better.

My boys are so proud of me when I run a race.  I am always proud of them when they are on the field, so it is a cool new dynamic to see their pride in ME.

Health, fitness, accomplishment, joy, my Mother's Day gift to myself.