My First 5K

Good evening folks!  I hope you have had as an incredible day as I've had!  What?  Your day wasn't incredible?  Well then, let me tell you about my day so that you can share in the incredibleness of my day, shall we?

As stated in the previous post I have begun running.  It wasn't easy and it wasn't even something that I ever viewed as something I wanted to do.  Well, Rick, my hubby got started a few years back and has been doing incredibly well.  He's completed 3 Triathlon and several other small runs here in our area.  He also got picked (lottery system this year) to run in the Houston Marathon coming up next year in March, I believe.  I am so proud of him and he has come such a long way.  Not only has he improved his health but he looks incredible as well!  Love you my Honey Bunches of Oats!  Along this incredible (there's that word again) journey he started he has researched, read magazines, talked to anyone and everyone who runs, bikes and swims, and has read forum after forum regarding these sports.  So, you see, by the time it actually got around to me putting on a pair of shoes (recommended by my hubby of course) he had done all of the hard work for me!  Essentially, he became my coach, trainer and biggest supporter!

I started my "athletic" journey just about 7 months ago.  I started out walking of course.  I use the BuddyRunner app on my phone to log my walks/runs.  It's actually pretty cool because it tracks your course, elapsed time, pace in min/mile, elevation fluctuations and of course your distance.  I can sync all of this info to  the web and track my progress.  Anyhow, I started out walking and my first logged walk was .62 miles in 21 min and 17 sec.  Yeah, I was turtle slow.  I wasn't fully on board yet so that affected my effort.

As you know from my previous post as well, we have 3 dogs.  Two of which are large breeds and need good consistent exercise so they don't go stir crazy.  I used them as motivation to get me moving and Rick had taken one of them on a couple of his runs before so I knew they were up for it.  So having the "incredible" (word of the day people) support of my husband and some great dogs, not to mention protection, to run with I began running!  I don't want to bore you with all the details of my past runs but I'll just tell you that I started with my first 1.5 miles in March in 23min 49sec at 15'10" min/mi, to my first 3.66 miles in September in 54min 47sec at 14'57" min/mi, to TODAY!  I ran my first 5K race which is about 3.1 miles and I did it in 34 min at a pace of 10'41"!  Now that may be a bunch of mumbo jumbo to a lot of you but to a runner that's what it's all about!

Here are a few pics, albeit bad, from my phone's camera to help you share in this incredible event from today.

Us before the race.  Since Rick had signed me up through his work we had matching shirts, "awww", and we were trying to look for others from his work but there were so many people we couldn't find anyone.

The SEA of people!  This was only a small portion.  I believe the announcer said they started with about 1,800 racers for the first one and today there was over 38,000!  That's a lot of people ya'll!

We were in the non-competitive category and the Family walk started first then the Competitive Runners then us.  So we were able to get closer to the front once they started.

After the race they had a huge area where everyone could go and hang out.  People were handing out snacks,  water, hand towels and other goodies.  While walking around we ran into one of our good friends who has a prosthesis on his left leg from a motorcycle accident.  He and his wife are incredible people and we are blessed to know them.  It was great to see him out here too!  Yes,  that is a banana sticking out of my belt and a Luna bar. :-)  I told you they were handing out snacks!

So, that was the start of my incredible day!  Yes!  There's more!  Since the boys stayed with Papa (thank you Papa!) Rick and I were able to stay downtown for a bit and spend some time together.  After the race we went to, REI, an outdoor recreation merchandise store.  If you haven't been I highly recommend purchasing a membership and going!  We hung out there looking at cool stuff and trying on shoes.  Then, we went to a very unique Persian restaurant called Kasra's.  It was very delicious!  Sorry, I don't have pics of that. :-(  We got to sit and eat and talk!  Without being interrupted by little munch-kin voices! But wait!  There's more!  When we got home I went straight up stairs and took about a TWO hour nap!  Oh man, that felt good.  I ended up bathing the dogs when I got up and just hanging out with my honey and boys...how awesome is that!

To round out this incredible day I will go to sleep knowing that tomorrow will be me and my sweetheart's 12 year anniversary!  Yes, I have been blessed with being with one INCREDIBLE man for over 12 years and I wouldn't change it for the world!  So, I leave you with this...aren't we cute...

God bless!