I'm baa-ack!! Vacation with my family has kept me from my computer but I have been chomping at the bit to give the rundown on this 5k.
First of all the reasons I wanted to do this 5k.
1. It was a Military Appreciation race. How could I not want to do a race that supports the US Military?
2. The location of the race was in Myrtle Beach SC. How cool is that?
3. Some of my fellow cyber running mamas whom I had never met but "knew" via Facebook, Dailymile and Cafemom were running in it.
I arrived with my family in SC the day before the race. I was extremely nervous about not being able to find the location of the race so that eve. Ryan, my father in law and myself set out to find the location of packet pickup. It took us a very long time to find it so I was happy we went looking the night before. Race morning Ryan drove me and although we found the place the night before we still got a little turned around but managed to get there in plenty of time. The minute I stepped out of the car I knew I was in trouble. It was already 80 degrees and very humid. If I had been in MI I would have been able to see my breath. Quite a big difference and I knew my body would have a hard time adjusting. Fortunately I had already had it set in my mind that I was just going to run in the race but I was not going to race the race. I know my body and I know if I went out guns blazing to try and get a PR I would end up with some nasty shin splints. (happens every race) I was not going to let shin splints ruin my family vacation so the plan was to just go nice and easy and enjoy the race. The heat made it easy to stick to the plan.
Just after I picked up my race packet I saw Heather (aka Run Faster Mommy http://www.runfastermommy.com/) in the parking lot. I was most excited to finally meet Heather because she has been such a great source of inspiration to me. (a topic I will elaborate on in a post later on this month but for now back to the 5k) Heather was not the only girl I was getting to meet at this race though. Two other girls from our running moms group were going to be there Elizabeth (who by the way does not live in SC. She, like me, was just on vacation with her family. How cool is that?) and Hope (aka team Epton http://www.teamepton.com) I had just said to Heather I am not sure that I am going to recognize the other girls when Elizabeth walked by and believe it or not I recognized her right away. Right after that Hope showed up. Meeting these girls was by far my most fav. moment of the race.
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| Hope, Heather and myself |
As the crowd of runners gathered by the starting line we all chatted until it was time to take our places in the pack. Since I am slow I just moved straight to the back of the pack while the other girls (who are fast by the way) stayed up near the front. The gun went off and away we went. I normally race with music. This race I had none ~by none I mean my mp3 player is lost somewhere in SC. Someone, somewhere, right now is enjoying my booty music. "sigh" I realized during this race that the reason why I like listening to music so much while running is because it drownds out the sound of me breathing. OMG am I one of "those" runners? You know what I am talking about, the ones you can hear from a mile away who's breathing makes you grab for your phone to dial 911 because you are sure they are about to die... yeah that might be me... but right now I am just going to blame it on the fact that the humidity was making it difficult to breath. Not having my headphones on felt strange but gave me an opportunity to better take in my surroundings and even chat with some other people in the race. Before I knew it I completely forgot that I did not have them on. I met a nice girl named Amy who also knew Heather and Hope and we ran together and chatted for a little while. About mile two I was really starting to feel the heat and found myself taking and extra walk break at which time I ended up talking to another woman who was so incredibly nice. We commented on how the course had NO shade and how it would have been nice if mother nature could have sent us a breeze or two our way. She was great fun to talk with but before I knew it my 30 second walk break I was anticipating turned into a few min. I tried to get her to run with me but she said she was done with the running and just wanted to walk now. She wished me good luck and away I went... again. At this point in time I knew we were getting close to the finish line and it was not long before I could see the gathering of people and hear the crowd (an upside to not having the mp3 player) Then I heard my name and realized that my fellow running mamas were cheering me on. hhhmmm wait, I might have to retract my earlier statement because this might have been my favorite part of the race. It was an amazing feeling to cross the finish line being cheered on by the very girls who had been so instrumental in me actually getting to the point of being able to run a 5k. Once I was just about to cross the finish line I saw my husband who actually had the camera in hand and was taking a picture. This is a huge milestone people, the guy NEVER takes pictures. It was a good feeling having Ryan there, this was the first race of mine that he had been too and it meant a lot to me that he was there. Hope handed me a water and Heather pointed me into the direction of my medal. YAY a medal just for finishing I was so excited (no it does not take much)
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| me crossing the finish line |
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| Me, Hope and Heather just after I Just after I crossed the finish line (still out of breath at this point haha) |
We of course waited around for the results and I was excited to see how my fellow mamas did. I knew that they all were getting medals for placing in their age groups so that was exciting. Heather 1st in her age group, Elizabeth 1st in her age group, Hope 2nd in her age group. I was loving cheering for these amazing women and I was still cheering for Hope (we are in the same age group) when I heard them call my name. 3rd place? What? Are you kidding me? I was beyond shocked, never in a million yrs would I ever guess that I would ever get a medal placed around my neck. Sure sure there was only 4 gals in my age group but I do not care because I have a bronze medal hanging up right now. ahahahha My time was 37:18 so not my best by far but enough to secure 3rd place.
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| What?!?! OMG he just called my name! WoooHooo!! |
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| Heather, Hope, Elizabeth and me after getting our medals. |
All in all this was by far was my most favorite race I have done to date. There is no doubt that yrs from now I am going to look back at this race with such fond memories. I am sure I will forget how hot it was, my time, or that I lost the mp3 player. What I will remember will be meeting some amazing girls, the feeling of seeing my husband at the finish line with the camera in his hand, hearing my friends cheering me on, and the announcer saying MY name. It was an amazing race for an amazing cause and I am so very happy to have gotten a chance to participate in it.
