Another 5K under my belt. (June 6, 2009)

Here is my friend Linda

Here is me.

I finished my 5K this morning. My time was better than my first one - 41.58. My last one that I ran was 44. I am really thrilled. That means I am making progress. But I also want to point out that I was wearing my SPARK T-SHIRT! YEAH!!

Linda made really good time considering that this was her first race and she has only been running for three weeks. My husband decided at the last minute to do the walk. I am proud of him! Me and Linda went back to the last walker and walked in with her. We wanted to encourage her as we could tell she was struggling. That felt better than finishing the race! It was really cool.

During this race my left brain tried to get the best of me (those familiar with Jeff Galloway will know what I am talking about). My thoughts were - "I must be crazy." "There is no way I can do a half marathon!" and my mind wanted to quit entirely but I would not do that. I did a 2/2 run/walk segment and I kept telling myself that I only had 2 minutes to go (for my run/walk segment) and I could do anything for 2 minutes. I was really going out to fast and decided to slow down. I could not keep up with Linda so she ran on ahead. All in all it was a good experience. I won a beautiful back pack during the drawing for door prizes. When I walked back with it, the lady behind me looked at her daughter and said, "aw, that was the one you wanted." So I turned around and gave it to the little girl. I knew I didn't really need it. She was really happy. Her mother seemed somewhat shocked that I would do that. (there are still some nice people in this world)

All in all it was a very good experience. And....Linda says she is hooked now! She has the running fever! Awesome experience! Can't wait for the next one. But I'm still not too sure about the half marathon. But I have 26 weeks to train for it so I am sure I will be ready by then. Never in a million years would I ever have dreamed I would be doing this. Just last December I was a couch potato and slowing gaining back the weight I had lost. Thank you God for my health. Thank you for the ability to do this. Thank you for not giving up on me when I gave up on myself. And......THANK YOU SPARK PEOPLE for the encouragement.! You rock - all of you!