They're Running....

The kids and I (all except little Dave) ran in the Cedar Perk 5-Miler and Kid's K a couple of weeks ago. All the kids did great. Benji finished 5th over-all, and both Maddie and Jon finished strong. I had tears in my eyes watching them all take off. Jon didn't want Maddie to fall behind, so the two of them started out holding hands! How sweet is that? (Especially since the majority of their days are spent trying to see which can aggravate the other the most!)

They both stopped to walk for a little bit, but when the end was in site, Maddie took off running and Jon spent the remainder of the race trying to catch up. He told me, "I was holding her hand so she wouldn't be alone, and then she smoked me!" The best part was that he wasn't mad about it. He was proud of her.

Now, I should admit here and now that I don't run so much as I jog. I don't run for speed, I run for distance. If I can make it the whole 5 miles, I'm happy with that. I did however, beat my previous "fastest" time by running the entire five miles in a mere 1 hour and 14 minutes! This was a full minute faster than my previous best. Are you proud of me?

Would you still be proud of me if I told you I came in 246th out of 300 runners? How about if I told you that the speed walkers left me in the dust? What about if I mentioned that the fastest time that day was 28 minutes and 20 seconds? And here's the kicker...the lady who won in the 70-75 year old category ran it in less than 40 minutes!!! Believe me, there is no room for pride in my running career!

I did not stop to walk though, and I did finish the race with a sprint at the end which is always my goal--to have enough left at the end to finish strong. It just feels better than starting out strong and then crawling across the finish while sucking air!

The best part of the race for me, however, was when I came down to the final 1/4 mile mark to find three of the kids standing there waiting to finish the race with their mama! Here we are coming down the stretch...



...you may notice the 4 people behind us. See how leisurely they are walking and having conversations while my face is completely red and I'm huffing and puffing? Sad, so very sad, I know. In fact Maddie thought I came in last place...she thought those people behind us were just out for a Sunday morning walk!

My next race will be on November 4, and it is the "Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure". My friend Denise is going to run or walk it with me. Yahoo! It's a 5K, so not as long as the 5-miler. Hopefully, we'll finish in front of the strollers and dog-walkers! But, just having a friend to do it with will be fun for me! If you are interested in making a donation for me, you can check out the details and find the link here.