Running

I just finished my first official 10k race this morning! I would be feeling all relieved and accomplished, but Steven and I have signed up for a half marathon on November 1, so I have that training in my sights now. And.... the thought of more than doubling what I ran today makes me feel very tired. Let's pray all the training pays off!

I still don't know if I can call myself a "runner" yet, but here we are. I have never really been a distance runner. I did sprints and track until I was 14, but running was always something that seemed not very fun and painful. I have always been active and done pretty much everything (spinning, cycling, swimming, soccer, yoga, etc.) to stay fit without running.

Back in May, my good friend convinced me to run this race today. It was a 5k/10k race, so I agreed and thought to myself, "well... I at least need to make sure I can run the whole thing!" So I started running and signed up for the 5k.

Once I started running and watching my 5k time go from 31 to 26 minutes, I decided that maybe running wasn't such a horrible thing and I decided to run the 10k today. And now, the more I run, the more I love it. I just may become a runner for life.

As a mom, I am loving having tangible goals outside of motherhood. On crazy days, I love to put in my headphones and just run away. It clears my head, and I am getting faster. I'm still new to running, but I think that if I put in the time and work, then I have the ability to run some decent times.

Anyways... the race today was fun but not what I was expecting. I woke up this morning and my stomach hurt. It hurt a lot. I thought that it was just pre-race jitters, but it became clear when I got to the starting line that I was not feeling my best. I definitely need to figure something out for future events, because I did not feel good.

I got to the run and had a great warm-up chatting with friends and stretching.

Then they lined everybody up, with the 10k runners in front, then the 5k runners, then the 5k walkers. There were about 200 women there with about 40 running the 10k.

We started out and I watched three ladies just sprint ahead really really fast. They were clearly going for like 7:00 minute miles, which was definitely way faster than me. There was one other girl who ran just ahead of me the whole race, but I stayed and finished in 5th place the whole time.

The first five miles my splits were between 8:20-8:55 minute miles and while I didn't feel good, I was doing pretty well. Then at about mile 5 my stomach really started to hurt. I was frustrated because my legs and lungs felt great.

 I have been running 5-6 miles a few times a week, so I was frustrated that I was struggling. My last mile was 9:38, which was way slower then I was hoping. But.. I pushed through and managed to finish in 55:22. My goal time was anything under 56 minutes, so I met my goal!

I'll admit that I didn't feel great at all during the race, but I definitely learned a little bit about how to push through when in pain.

I had the cutest little cheerleaders at the end of the race. I love my family so much, and I was so excited to see them.

After the race, I grabbed some water, and we took some more pictures with friends:

Then Aubrey and Cora practiced racing through the finish line, and we went home. It was a great morning, and I look forward to future running events. I seriously never thought that I would ever say that, so it feels great :)