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.