I F****ing Did It!

So I figured since I am walking 10,000 steps a day, then a 3 mile race (which is actually a 5K race) would be, well, just 'ramping it up' a bit.  I put down my $30 and signed up for the Sun Run yesterday.  After all, the money goes toward solar panel for the library - good cause - and I get to run in a race.

So my training coach was a bit flaky for this endeavor.  Actually, there was no 'training' whatsoever.

Yesterday dawned clear and beautiful with about 10,000 mile an hour winds.  No, really, the wind was out to promote wind energy in Montana.  And it was cool, especially since the day before we had gotten to the low 80's.  But Texter and Lady K accompanied me to the race start and pinned on my number.

I was "official" and had a number and everything!  And this was one of those tags with the chip to accurately record my time! (Of course, Texter was zealous in her pinning and I couldn't remove my jacket during the race.)

The start of the race was a roller coaster of hills, but we had a tail wind.  Unfortunately, I don't think it really helped me much.  But the view from the road we were on was great.  There was one small part we did an 'off-road' portion and hit a hiking trail to connect to the road.  The funny part was the route went a couple of streets over, but passed my house twice.  I could have bailed at any time.

So I huffed and puffed,  trotted, jogged and walked through the 3 miles of the race.  I just wanted to finish within the 45 minutes scheduled for the race.  While I didn't quite do that (my time was 46.20), I learned at the start my 3 mile race was actually considered a 5K.  So now I can say I ran a 5K!  And my average pace was 14.57, so under 15 minutes a mile.  

After I made the turn and headed back to the finish line, several things hit me and hit me a bit hard.

• I was actually running a race!
• I have lost 3 people in the past couple of months, one of which, if he had been around, would have been giving me hell the entire race.
• It wasn't as bad as I thought.  Not saying it was easy, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
• I have some great family and friends who were cheering me on via text messages.  Texter and Lady K came out and waved me on as I passed the house on the last leg of the race.
• I didn't hydrate enough prior to the race.
• I didn't 'train' enough for running.

BUT I DID IT! And have the t-shirt to prove it!

Of course, as I looked at my fitbit count for this morning, Christine, who had been at a library convention all weekend, must have hit the elliptical early and really racked up some steps.  So no rest for the weary!