Run For The Children 5K RECAP

If you don't want to hear all sorts of details about my running - then let me just stop you right here and tell you that this blog post will bore you out of your mind.

Today we (Judson, my mom, and I) ran the Run for the Children 5K in Graham. And it was AWESOME. But, let's back up a little first.

We had been registered to run this race ever since I first began being inspired to be a runner again, so I have been anticipating it's arrival. This past week I was starting to get worried that I wasn't going to be ready enough for it, but on Wednesday I ran my 3 mile hill route WITHOUT stopping and walking at all. I'm not even exagerating, that this route is 75 % uphill and so hard. Once I conquered that and with a fairly decent pace, I knew I was ready!

I also read this book for the 3rd time in my life last week, for some added boosts of inspiration, while icing my knee of course.

This was the first race I had run since my half marathon two years ago. It was the first time my mom had run at all in weeks. It was the first race Judson had EVER run, but he has been running a lot with me. Needless to say, our expectations weren't very high we just all wanted to finish without being completely humilated.

I know, I know - high maintance runner

I really thought that when my alarm went off in the morning I was going to have to do some convincing/begging to Judson to plleeeeaaaassee get out of bed and come run this race with me. Instead, before my alarm could even ring at 6:45, Judson was already jumping out of bed and getting dressed in his racing gear! We drank some coffee (duh.) and ate a banana and headed to Dowtown Graham ready to go!

It was a great atmosphere and really made me realize how much I missed it all! It was also perfect weather. A little overcast and 65 degrees - A runner's dream.

As soon as we started Judson took off! I kissed him before they blew the horn and then saw him as a little purple dot up in the distance for about a minute before he completely disapeared out of my sight. I was really trying to focus on keep a good pace and not get burnt out. Luckily, I had a running buddy with me the first mile. Am I embarassed that she is 6 years old? No, because this girlfriend was bookin' it and bless her heart was completely exhausted by the start of the second mile. But together we PRed my mile time for the week!

I was really excited, pain free, and happy the whole race. There were people cheering all along the whole route, and since this is my hometown 85% of them were people I grew up around, which was comforting. Also, Graham is beautiful so it was just very enjoyable. I kept looking at my Garmin and being shocked at how fast I was going and telling myself to slow down some so I can finish this thing strong, but I just couldn't help it! 

The last .3 stretch of the race, what do I see? My adorable husband, who has already finished, running back to run with me. I teared up a little at first as he was running toward me and telling me I'm almost finished and then I quickly switched gears to just wanting to run run run as fast as I could. 

Turns out - we all did A LOT better than expected! My mom got 6th place for her age group! I got 4th place for my age group! WHAT! I have never ever placed in a place worth telling about. And just to make sure that I wasn't 4th out of 4 or something like that, I went and counted all the women in my age group and there were 21! So YAY! 

Judson got 3rd for his age group and got a medal!!!!! 

I'm so proud. 

When we were walking around for a cool down he said to me, "Maybe we could run like a half marathon or something together." I think I started jumping up and down and screaming YES! I'm sure people thought he just proposed to me. I think I got him hooked.

Of course, double knee icing was in order afterwards. I think I just about have this knee pain under control, though. 

And then, you know, FOOD. 

and NAPS

It has been a great day. I can't wait to sign up for another race, then next one will be a 10K though! I'm also so happy that I have made it to a place again where I can say - I love running.

Judson and me have some other exciting things in the works in our lives right now, but we'll talk about that later. God is good.