I just wanted to take a second to brag on my oldest daughter, Loxley, who will be 11 in a week. She started Girls on the Run this year. GOTR is an awesome organization for girls. It gets them active, teaches them about teamwork and self esteem, and these girls form great friendships with each other. GOTR is the reason I started running.
Today we ran the Run for the Money 5k. It's a local charity event, and this was our first time running in it. It was also my sisters first 5k. I must say she did very well for her first time. She ran the whole 5k! So did Loxley! I was very proud of her. This is the first time she has ran a full 5k without stopping! She has done well this year, and this was her fourth race. She was determined to run the whole race. Every time I asked her if she wanted to stop she would shake her head and keep on going. She stuck with it and crossed the finish line running! She had a goal and pushed herself to achieve it. She gave it her all, and I am very proud of her! I just wanted to have a 'mommy moment' and do a little bragging. We are proud of our girl on the run!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
My first 10k!
First, let me apologise for waiting so long to update everyone. It's only half my fault. The other half is Mother Nature's fault. She knocked out my Internet for a week, and I forgot my password. So it wasn't because I didn't do the 10k. I did it! First, let me brag on the city of Charleston and the people who put the Cooper River Bridge Run together.
They were expecting 30,000 to 40,000 runners and walkers. Now I have never actually seen what a group of 40,000 people looks like, but I can imagine bringing them into your city in an organized fashion would be a daunting task to say the least. I have been in 5k's that were absolute disasters. Runners not knowing where to go, courses that were poorly marked, parking and traffic disasters, and so on. I would not be surprised to find out that this race was put together by an OCD support group. I have never seen anything more organised in my life. You knew exactly where to go, exactly where to start, and they made standing in the middle of 40,000 people fun. I always had medical personnel in my sight before, during, and after the race. That's good news for a fat chick trying to run. The buses to take us to the bridge (if your hotel was on the other side) were on time and they had plenty. Actually, I never knew that many buses existed. It made my first 10k awesome, and not a panic attack waiting to happen.
All of this made getting up at 4am a little exciting. My husband wasn't all that excited about it, but he thanked me later when we got on the first bus and were able to get to the Dunkin Donuts first for coffee. At 4am it is important to beat 40,000 people to coffee. We had a 3 hour wait till the start of the race. Another good thing about being first? You get to snatch a chair on a restaurant patio instead of standing in the road. So the wait wasn't that bad! The start was another story.
I was shaking when we got to the road to start. We were towards the back so we had to wait. Waiting does not help your nerves. Another reason I was shaking was because I was freezing to death. The wind coming off the water was painful. When I started running I started hurting. My lungs felt like they were going to explode from breathing in that cold air. That's just something I am not used to, and didn't think of when I bought my treadmill so I could run indoors. I had to stop and walk. I was disappointed, but the pain was pretty bad and I didn't want to risk not finishing. I walked a ways to warm up, and when I started running I felt great. Then came obstacle 2. I was mixed in with the walkers. It's hard to keep running when you have a wall of people in front of you walking. I did my best and my husband was great about pushing me. Not literally pushing, encouraging pushing. When I got the the end of the bridge my feet were killing me. I was wearing the world's worst socks and got blisters. I pushed on anyhow, taking little breaks on my feet by walking really fast instead of running. When I crossed the finish line I did it running. No way I was going to turn that corner and let all those people see this fat chick walking down the street. I swear they were moving it away from me, but I caught up to them and crossed it!
I truly did my best. I have no doubt about that. I learned things from this race that will help me prepare better for next year. Now, do you want to know my time? I bet you do. I bet you have been reading this thinking "how long did it take you fatty?" My goal was 'under 2 hours'. Well, with pain and blisters and walkers in my way I still did it in under 2 hours. My time was 1 hour, 37 minutes and 22 seconds! Bam! 10k goal accomplished! I could have done so much better had I thought about the things that slowed me down before the race instead of during, and that makes me proud of myself. So my goal for next year is 1 hour and 15 minutes or less.
What's next for this fat chick? I am doing a 5k this weekend with my oldest daughter and my sister. I am still losing weight. I will update on that soon, but I am getting compliments all the time. I feel great, but I am still having issues sticking to this whole 'exercise' thing. There has to be an easier way. I bet there is an app for that. There is one for everything else. So, the journey continues...
They were expecting 30,000 to 40,000 runners and walkers. Now I have never actually seen what a group of 40,000 people looks like, but I can imagine bringing them into your city in an organized fashion would be a daunting task to say the least. I have been in 5k's that were absolute disasters. Runners not knowing where to go, courses that were poorly marked, parking and traffic disasters, and so on. I would not be surprised to find out that this race was put together by an OCD support group. I have never seen anything more organised in my life. You knew exactly where to go, exactly where to start, and they made standing in the middle of 40,000 people fun. I always had medical personnel in my sight before, during, and after the race. That's good news for a fat chick trying to run. The buses to take us to the bridge (if your hotel was on the other side) were on time and they had plenty. Actually, I never knew that many buses existed. It made my first 10k awesome, and not a panic attack waiting to happen.
All of this made getting up at 4am a little exciting. My husband wasn't all that excited about it, but he thanked me later when we got on the first bus and were able to get to the Dunkin Donuts first for coffee. At 4am it is important to beat 40,000 people to coffee. We had a 3 hour wait till the start of the race. Another good thing about being first? You get to snatch a chair on a restaurant patio instead of standing in the road. So the wait wasn't that bad! The start was another story.
I was shaking when we got to the road to start. We were towards the back so we had to wait. Waiting does not help your nerves. Another reason I was shaking was because I was freezing to death. The wind coming off the water was painful. When I started running I started hurting. My lungs felt like they were going to explode from breathing in that cold air. That's just something I am not used to, and didn't think of when I bought my treadmill so I could run indoors. I had to stop and walk. I was disappointed, but the pain was pretty bad and I didn't want to risk not finishing. I walked a ways to warm up, and when I started running I felt great. Then came obstacle 2. I was mixed in with the walkers. It's hard to keep running when you have a wall of people in front of you walking. I did my best and my husband was great about pushing me. Not literally pushing, encouraging pushing. When I got the the end of the bridge my feet were killing me. I was wearing the world's worst socks and got blisters. I pushed on anyhow, taking little breaks on my feet by walking really fast instead of running. When I crossed the finish line I did it running. No way I was going to turn that corner and let all those people see this fat chick walking down the street. I swear they were moving it away from me, but I caught up to them and crossed it!
I truly did my best. I have no doubt about that. I learned things from this race that will help me prepare better for next year. Now, do you want to know my time? I bet you do. I bet you have been reading this thinking "how long did it take you fatty?" My goal was 'under 2 hours'. Well, with pain and blisters and walkers in my way I still did it in under 2 hours. My time was 1 hour, 37 minutes and 22 seconds! Bam! 10k goal accomplished! I could have done so much better had I thought about the things that slowed me down before the race instead of during, and that makes me proud of myself. So my goal for next year is 1 hour and 15 minutes or less.
What's next for this fat chick? I am doing a 5k this weekend with my oldest daughter and my sister. I am still losing weight. I will update on that soon, but I am getting compliments all the time. I feel great, but I am still having issues sticking to this whole 'exercise' thing. There has to be an easier way. I bet there is an app for that. There is one for everything else. So, the journey continues...
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