Wanna hear about my first 5K?

The top picture is me coming up to the finish line and the bottom is just after I crossed it and I'm running down the roped off section to get to Richard and the kids. And I'm running so Richard could get another running picture too, ha, ha!

The picture above is Natalie and I after the race resting. And of course the bottom is me and my support group!

I tried to sleep last night, to no avail. I went to bed at 10:00, Cassidy decided to be scared of the dark last night (there's a night light in her room and the hallway) so I let her lay in bed with me for a little bit and then I took her back to her room and tucked her in. By this time I wasn't as sleepy as I originally was when I went to bed so I laid awake for a while. I fell asleep but woke up a lot through the night. I woke up at 6:50, Natalie picked me up at 7:20 and off to the race we went. The race started at 8:00. There were around 250 people there, some running and some walking. We started in the middle of the pack of runners. I believe my time ended up being 47-48 minutes. The times haven't been posted yet but when I got to Richard and the kids I looked at my pedometer and it was at 48 so I may have crossed the finish line at 47 something. I ran about 2.25 miles of it and walked .75 of a mile. It kicked my butt! The flat part of the course was fine. I run on flat surfaces here in my housing development. The part around the lake which is hilly is the part that kicked my butt. My calves started hurting and I wondered what exactly I had gotten myself into. But I kept trucking on walked some of the hilly portions around the lake and when I got back to flat I took off again. It was a great experience and I totally loved it. Brenden's friend Micah was walking it with his mom and her sisters and when I passed him (the course was a loop around so you go to a point and turn around and go back the same way you came from) he put his hand out and high fived me and his mom and sisters were clapping for me and cheering. Lucky for me I was running past them so they were cheering for me as I ran. And another of Angie's sisters ran the race and when she passed me heading back she gave me words of encouragement as well and she finished before me and was on the side cheering for me as well. That was a cool feeling. As I got to the finish line the people who had already finished were cheering for everyone else as well. It was so cool. And as I got closer to the finish line there was Richard taking pictures of me and the kids were cheering for me too. I could see them about two blocks before I got to the finish line and it was so great to have them there cheering me on. Richard gave me a big hug and told me good job. I had a great time in my first race and now I'll always have a time to beat. No one ever goes into their first race being at the top of their game so I now have a personal time to beat of my own and I look very much forward to doing so. My next race is May 15 and even if I beat myself by just 1 minute it will be an accomplishment. Shoot, today was an accomplishment just for being out there and competing in a race and I'm very proud of myself.

UPDATE: it's Sunday morning and the results are posted on the website and my time was 47:26. I thought it might have been just under 48. Yay me! And I wasn't the last place runner either. There were runners behind me which makes me feel great about my first race. This is a picture the race officials took of me as I crossed the finish line and the bottom picture is the start of the race. If you look straight down the middle of the picture you'll see me. Look behind the man in the front row in the red shirt and I'm in the 4th row straight behind him. You may be able to click on the picture to make it bigger.

2 days to go!

2 days til race day! I picked up my race day packet this morning with my number, I'm number 3, and my race day shirt and a little box of wheaties fuel. I'm very excited. I'm going to start in the back end of the runners so I don't get trampled and that way I won't feel like a big dummy when I have to walk some since I'll be just in front of the walkers. Anyway, just wanted to share my excitement. I worked from 8pm to midnight last night so I'm exhausted and I'm gonna rest before I work again today.

6 days til my first race

Saturday April 24th is my first 5K. I've been able to get more running time in now it is warmer outside and I'm not scheduling any work hours in the morning. I had to put my running back as a priority and myself as a priority and schedule myself in to my own stinking schedule. I run on M-W-F at 9:30am with my friend and yesterday I ran at the boys' school for 1.25 miles. I was planning on running 2 miles but at the 1.25 lap around I came up to Spencer telling me Brenden was hurt so after checking on him we decided to head home. Brenden was on the playground and was jumping up to a part of the jungle gym and didn't clear the bar above his head and he hit the back of his neck. We didn't want to take any chances with that kind of injury so we came on home. Back to the race....I don't know if I'll be able to run the entire 3 miles without walking some of it but I will give it my best shot. But by the May 15 Race for the Cure I hope to be able to run that entire race. It's nice to be back to consistently running. With the treadmill broken I was unable to run until it got warmer and it's so great to be back outside running as well. And I love running in the morning, it curbs my apetite the rest of the day and gives me a lot of energy. So that's it for now. Check back next weekend for pictures of me at my first race!

Spring Break Adventures

Spring break was last week for the boys. We went to my dad's on Tuesday and I worked the rest of the week and on Saturday we went on a hike in the woods. Spencer put a Spencer size hole in my dad's screen door on Tuesday. I was cutting strawberries, my dad and Richard ran to the store for ice cream, Cassidy was in the kitchen with me and the boys were playing. I saw Brenden come across the window on the outside and the next thing I hear is a loud crashing sound and I thought he ran into the patio chair. Nope. Spencer was still in the house and saw Brenden outside and apparently ran to go to the back door and outside and ran right through the screen door. Needless to say I wasn't too happy at that point. Now what comes next truly proves that saying right that grandparents aren't as hard on grandkids as they are on us when we were kids because my dad laughed about it.

On Saturday we took a hike through the woods in Logan on the property of Richard's ex-brother in law and that was fun. Well, the walking into the woods was, out of it was all uphill and not nearly as fun! We went back to where Richard's nephew and a few friends have tree stands and the boys got up in one and Richard took Cassidy up in it too. I started the climb up and chickened out and came back down. But in my defense, it was only because I was wearing Brenden's boots and I didn't feel safe climbing in unfamiliar shoes. Lame I know, but true. When one of the groves slid on one rung of the ladder I freaked and back down I came. After leaving the woods we stopped by the park for a bit and then at 6 Brenden had his end of season basketball banquet.

I worked on Sunday to make up for not working on Tuesday and made nice money that day so I was happy. The job is going well and I'm really liking it. As I've built up my performance I'm seeing a lot more call volume and that's good. But with all sales jobs, you never know what the call volume will be so I'm thankful that it's been busy right now. Hoping it doesn't die off in the summer though I fear it could.

It's 2 weeks until my first 5k and Natalie and I walked this morning for 3.14 miles and will run on Wednesday and Friday. Neither of us has run in 2 weeks so we decided to walk this morning so as not to hurt ourselves and be sore the rest of the week. And we were busy talking! So that's it for now. Enjoy the nice weather we are having!

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone is having a happy Easter. Yesterday we went to Richard's sister Pam's for dinner with all her kids and grandkids. I thought I'd go ahead and put some pictures on here for everyone to see from this morning and yesterday at Pam's for the Easter egg hunt. We had another Easter egg hunt this morning at our house. Right now my kids are sugaring up and playing. And I'm tired and it's only 1:12pm. They had us up at 7:23am!

The one above is the "running for the baskets" after coming downstairs this morning.

The picture above is Spencer and Cassidy looking outside trying to find where the Easter Bunny hid eggs in the backyard. It was so sweet. And the bottom picture is all the kids at Pam's.

Are you watching American Idol?

Last night one of my favorites went home, Didi Benami. Richard says Didi reminds him of Edie Brickell. I really liked her and I do believe that someone will be offering her a recording contract. My other favorites are Siobhan Magnus, Crystal Bowersox (from here in Ohio), "Big Mike"Michael Lynche, and Andrew Garcia. I'm hoping these guys and girls will be the top 4. Clearly I was hoping that Didi would be with them for the top 5. It's really good this year with a lot of great and very different talent. Lily Scott was voted off a few weeks ago and she was very jazzy and good too. I have to watch their performances the next day online because American Idol performance night is on on the same night as Biggest Loser and Lost and we can only DVR one show while watching another. Sorry American Idol, Biggest Loser trumps you on that night. And well, no one can compete with LOST. And while I'm on the American Idol topic, sometimes there are performances on that show that leave an impression. For me that was Season 1 contestant Tamyra Grey singing "A House is not a Home". That night I really thought she would win the show. I was in tears. No one has ever topped that performance, in my eyes, on American Idol yet. I don't know how to put the video of that performance on here but if you want to hear it follow this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wN4wGxPvpw.