New Milestone

 

Today marked a new milestone for me. I've been a runner for years. Well, let me back up. I was a runner in highschool and completely gave it up through college until after my daughter was born in 2006. I've been running since then. I love it. I love putting on my iPod, getting in my groove, and just going. So, do you think I run long distances??? Well, not really. I'm good for about 3 miles. The longest I've ever done was the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta the summer before my Senior year of highschool. It's a 10K (6.2 miles). Let's just say I'm not 17 anymore.
A good friend of mine and I have been running together (mostly on the weekends) for about a year now. I like to tell people that's my adult conversation. We can chat about all kinds of things and get excersice at the same time...win - win. She talked me into signing up for the Rex Hospital Invitational 8K...8K what's that? Exactly, my same thought. It's 5 miles, so I thought it would be doable.
The last couple of weeks we've been meeting at 6 AM to run get ready, so to speak. The humidity was up all last week, but we knew we were ready.
Last night I did what any good runner does...ate pasta.  We had pasta with grilled veggies, chicken, and sweet Italian sausage, and yeast rolls on the side...so yummy.

My yummy pre-race dinner

Today was the big day! It started at 8 AM, so I picked her up at 7:30 and headed over to register; all was good and we were excited. The route was mostly going to be the route that we run all the time. Yes, it's hilly but we're in North Carolina, there's going to be hills.
The gun fired and we were off. We quickly got in our groove and according to her time tracker, did the first mile in 8 1/2 minutes...great huh? It was all downhill...which means to end the race we had to go back up that hill. The humidity set in and it was thick.
She beat me by 30 seconds because I really hit a wall, but I did cross the finish line running, and I've never been so excited to see a finish line before in my life. To make the finish better, our wonderful husbands brought our kids out to greet us at the finish line and cheer us on. A perfect way to end the race.



That's me finishing the race - 51:30 was my time

Yes, it was a hard race with the humidity and the hills, but we finished and we're still standing and that's all that matters. It was a great time. But mark my words, I have no desire to run any more than that. As much as I enjoy running, one thing that is NOT on my bucket list is running a half or full marathon. No siree, I'm happy to run my small distances and enjoy time with my friend.

My running buddy, Jaleh & me

The greatest cheering section in the world