My first race!

This past weekend I ran my first EVER race.  I ran the Run Like a Girl 5K at First Landing State Park.  This was a "girls only" race to support The HERA Foundation.  I chose this race as my first for two reasons - 1) it was a relaxed atmosphere - at a state park on trails and women only and 2) I had lots of friends running the race and support/encouragement that I COULD actually do it!

It was a bit of a fiasco getting there.  We have been for First Landing several times, in fact, that is where we always go to the beach, but the entrance to the race was at the opposite end of where I expected it to be and so we were a little later than I expected.  Luckily for me so was the lead bike so the race started about 10 minutes late to make up for the 10 minutes it took up to find the entrance!!!

My OFFICIAL fan club!! Originally, I had planned to push the stroller - when I registered it said the 5K was stroller friendly, but it turns out that wasn't the case... The double stroller would have taken up the entire trail in a couple spots!

This is my friend Andrea.  She is also a military spouse and she has a daughter named Addison.  (This is "other" Addison if you ever hear Ady talking about "other" Addison)  We go to Stroller Strides together and she is a great inspiration to me as a runner.  She ran the 10K this weekend!

(Pre-Race)

I was nervous.  The 10K group started and I got even more nervous.  It was just me and the path.  One foot in front of the other.  "I can do this!" I just kept telling myself.  It isn't about winning or having some crazy awesome time.  It was about making it to the finish line 3.125 miles away.  The siren blew.  Time to go.  I started out for a nice slow jog.  Inhale 4 steps, exhale 4 steps.  Nice and slow.  I took a peek at my watch, only to realize that in all my anxiety I had forgot to start my stopwatch.  Whatever.  I didn't need it.  5 minutes later I glanced again.  SWEET!  I had jogged 5 minutes straight!  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but considering 3 months ago I could hardly jog 30 second without being winded it is quite an accomplishment for me!!  I still have quite a bit of training to get where I want to be so I had to stop and walk until I caught my breath probably 5 times throughout the race.

I finished with a time of 42:51 which was 38th of 69 5K participants. 

The high of crossing the finish line was a high and sense of accomplishment I had never felt before. 

I am addicted. 

This is immediately after crossing the finish line.  The finish actually snuck up on me.  I could hear the cheers of the crowd but had no idea I was as close as I was.  I came around a bend and BAM! there is was.  I had made it.... and I didn't feel like I was about to die!

These are the Stroller Strides ladies that ran the race that day.  Three of us ran the 5K and the others ran the 10K.  I really owe a lot of my success to Stroller Strides and my friends and instructors from class.  They all are amazing women and their stories of success inspire me. 

My original goal when I stared running was to run the Shamrock 8K as my first race, but when I found out about Run Like a Girl I jumped the gun.  No there is a Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving morning that I am having a hard time not registering for.  There is NO way I could run the whole thing, but you gotta start somewhere, right?!?!?