My First 5k (Day 75)

WooHoo!!! I think I've caught the bug!

My dh woke up early with us and drove us the 30 minutes to the starting area. I was still a tad nervous, just for the newness of it all, but was very excited to just get out there and exercise! My goal was less than 54:00 minutes and NOT to be last. The fastest I have done a 5k on my treadmill was 53:38 but I know running on pavement is completely different than the cushioning of a treadmill.

The rain came down as we drove to the race town. It was freezing cold as well. My daughters and I walked to the packet pickup area. I saw that the time chips were supposed to go on the shoe. Never having done this before I asked a group of the 10-milers. My girls were embarrassed that I'd approach complete strangers. Hey, I told them I was a newbie and had NO idea how this all worked. They were Awesome and willing to help!

My 12yo skinny minny was FREEZING! I had to keep her in the car most of the time until it started.


This is my 12yo, myself and my 13 yo. We had just pinned on our numbers and still had 30 minutes until the 5k started.

Never having experienced the "race"atmosphere we gathered at the starting line to watch how it was done with the 10-milers. Impressive group! With 15 minutes til our starting we hurried to the port-a-pottie lines and then rushed back to the start.

They held up signs for those who ran a 7mph/mile, 8, 9, and 10 and then said for walkers and strollers to get in the very back. Well, I for sure knew none of those times applied to me but there was no way I was going to the very back of the pack.

We lined up with the 10mph group and I stayed on the outside not to get in anyone's way. My 13 yo was going to run on her own and see how fast she could do it. I required my 12yo to stay with me. She wasn't too thrilled with that. I knew she wouldn't be as fast as her sister but she was probably faster than me.

The horn went off and so did I. What?! I actually jogged the beginning. The adrenaline was going and I was caught up in the emotion of it all. I've heard people warn about this so after jogging for a few minutes I told my dd we were going to walk,  but  to do a fast walk. We walked over the bridge but picked up to a jog to come down it. I was very excited to see the 1mile mark and checked my cell phone app to see how fast I did it. 14:40 WooHoo, I was faster than I had planned.

As we approached the 1mile sign there were the faster 5k'ers coming back around (The two fastest were 14 and 13 and they did it in 19 something...CRAZY!)

As we saw more and more people passing us from the opposite direction I knew we'd be seeing my other dd soon. I was so proud of her when we did, she was doing so great! She was on the other side of the road from us but I held up my arms and cheered her name and yelled! (Another embarrassing moment for my girls).

I guess I like to embarrass my kids because most of the volunteers I passed I would tell them, "thanks so much for volunteering!" and I chatted several times with fellow racers. My 12yo said she's NEVER racing with me again! It's too embarrassing!

At one point I wished my legs would cooperate more. My lungs felt fine, like they could push it more, but my legs didn't have it in them. We jogged for about a minute several more times then I decided to not do more, I was going to save my energy to be able to jog across the finish line.

The rain that came down on us at the beginning part of the race started tapering off and finally quit with a bit of sun popping out. Beautiful! It was still cold and my legs felt it!

I called my dh on our final stretch to let him know we were coming in. He was standing there with our 13yo taking pictures/videos. Right before the finish line my 12yo took off and ended up finishing 6seconds ahead of me.

My time....

47:06

I was/am THRILLED with my time! My age category was 40-44. I got 17th place out of 20. In 4 days I'll be 45, I think I should have put my age down as 45 then I would have been 12th in that age group.

What a wonderful event! They had water, oranges, bananas, cinammon rolls, pizza an cookies waiting at the end!  I opted just for water and oranges to hold back the cravings and to stay on plan. They were also SUPER organized, posting results periodically.  I didn't have to wait more than 8minutes to see my official result.

As we got in the car to come home my 13 yo (who got 35:15, 8th place out of 34 in her 11-14 yr old group) said, "So what race are we doing next month?"

I've been looking and have found a few but probably will wait until May. Don't know if my obese body and crazy schedule can handle doing one a month.

I'm loving this Non-Scale Victory!

By the way...I did this weighing 282.6 (a total loss of 42.4) And here is what I look like: