Finished!

It is done. The first major "race" of my life is over... it will not be my last. I have to say it may take me a week or so to recover from it, but it was definetly a come to Jesus moment.

I started out by getting the worst night's sleep ever. We all tried to go to be early the night before so that we would feel rested for the early morning ahead. That idea worked for some (Brian), worked to the advantage of others (Just bring Cole to bed, so that he will go to sleep), and worked to my HUGE DISADVANTAGE. Lights out at 10:00, I finally fell asleep around 1, had to get up and pee twice because of all the water I drank in the evening, we got a prank phone call around 4:00, and the alarm finally went off around 5:45. I was never so glad for a night to be over just so I didn't have to worry about sleeping anymore, and I could move on.

I got up and around to a quiet house, to quickly notice it was raining, HARD. So I called the Y to make sure the race was still on, and runners much like golfers do it in anything... GAME ON.

We arrived at the Y 30 minutes before the race with cheering section in tow. (I am so lucky to have supportive friends and family.) My friend Sarah and I met up and did some pre-race pacing (aka: stretching and psyching yourself up to run 5 miles in the pouring rain).

As the rain continued to come down, we lined up, and the horn blew at 7:30 sharp. We took off. Now, please remember that I never claim to be a fast runner, so when everyone took off at a true runner's pace, I was screwed. It really wore me out in a hurry, so I had to drop off from Sarah and do this on my own. I trudged on through each mile, praying I would finish, wondering what to do if I didn't- not an option, and pushing, pushing, pushing.

At mile 3, a blister on my heal popped leaving exposed skin rubbing on my shoes, oh so painful, but the worst is my left big toe, it is black and blue, and disgusting. I am not sure how much running of any kind I will be doing this week.

So here I am, finishing the 8K (4.98 mile) race in 1:02:15. Not pumped about my time, in fact I have done it faster on the track, but I had to remind myself that on the track it was not hilly, and pouring.

In the end, I finished, with family and friends to greet me

and a smile on my face.

The rest of the weekend was spent doing this...