I DID IT!!!

Saturday was my 5K.  I thought I had prepared well for it but I really had no idea what to expect.  For August, the weather was perfect!  When I first got there, it was a little breezy and cool.  Not until more than half way through the race did the sun come out so that was great.

I started the race in the back because I'm a pretty slow runner.  My whole goal was to not walk any of it.  Even in my training, I hadn't done that yet.  So I was hoping for a time under 35 minutes but was really just going to be happy with under 40 minutes.

The race started and I just start jogging.  After a little while, it was harder to breathe and I knew I was running faster than I normally do.  I kept trying to slow my pace but when others are running around you, it's so hard to do that.  My first mile time was under 10 minutes.  WHAT??  I was shocked!

Then I really tried to slow it down.  There was no way I could maintain that pace.  Even then, I ran faster than I had ever run before.  My plan was to slow my pace for mile 2 and 3 and then sprint to the end.  That didn't work though.  I didn't slow my pace enough and barely had enough in me to run to the end.

But I met all my goals.  I ran the whole thing and my time was 33.03 minutes.  Not too bad!  Looking back, I could not have pushed any harder and still finished the race.  There was a few minutes where I was seriously worried I was going to throw up.

Shauna ran with me even though she could have gone much faster than me.  She encouraged me the whole way and was bragging on me to other runners.  I could barely get out three word answers and she was easily carrying on conversations.

After the race, I had to sit down.  I was light headed and exhausted.  It felt great, though!