Well folks I lived through the weekend. Literally went from couch to 5k and then bed to 10k, whoa.
I only had 2 goals for each race, to not be last, and to finish better than my previous times. I'm proud to say I reached both goals in both races!!
A HUGE HUGE thank you to everyone for the tweets, the facebook likes and all the encouragement. Special thanks to the fam for coming both races to cheer me on :D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday night 7:30 pm - 5k
time to beat was 0:50:33.8 finished the race 0:45:10 and 4544/5999
I think this race was my favorite of the two (obviously because this one is shorter) but there was a more party feeling atmosphere about this race, the Saturday races seemed more serious and hardcore with all the fancy pants marathon runners. But there is nothing like running down the middle of Green street with what seemed like the entire U of I student population lining the streets cheering and high-fiving. You can't not run with that many people around you cheering.
Favorite part of this race was the Naval ROTC boys in uniform ringing a bell about mile 1.5. My favorite sign from this race as you neared the finish was "You can't quit now, you aren't the pope!" Running in the stadium at night with all the lights on coming out of the tunnel was a pretty cool experience too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday morning 7:40 am - 10k
time to beat 1:49:47 race time 1:42:09 and 2167/2350
This race was a little tougher I won't lie. About mile 3 my feet were killing me, those fancy pants official orthopedic shoe inserts were not friendly to my feet and I now have blisters the size of Texas, but I kept telling myself I had to keep going, I had to finish.
This race was more through residential neighborhoods and it was so awesome to see how much the community comes together for this event. People were lined up sporadically along the route sitting outside in their lawn chairs cheering everyone one. Free high-fives, people sitting in their pajama's watching you run by, there was even a Free Candy station that someone had set up with gummybears along the way.
There were so many awesome signs along the route that I saw. "Whine now, wine later", "Blisters are Braille for awesome" one sign was cheering for their friend and it said "Go Erin, and Go Complete Strangers!"
I also might have got lapped by the lead marathon runners, but holy shizz those guys were booking it. The guy who finished first was running a 5 minute mile. Yikes!
The thing I found most amazing was runners really do come in all shapes and sizes and all ages. You really are just running against yourself though. If you look around at everyone out there they were all running for different reasons and all had different goals.
One older lady was doing the race because she had been told she would never walk again, she was using a walker for the race but wanted to prove to herself she could do it. There were just so many touching stories out there.
I still have no idea what October Heather was thinking, but one thing I can say for sure is, she got her race bling. 3 medals and 2 t-shirts. I sure hope she is happy now.
As my dad put it, April Heather saved October Heather's ass. True story. I have the race foundation laid for sure, now there is nothing to do but improve, I'll have to really legit start working on this whole running thing though. The 2014 dates are already set, time to get running..... well after these blisters heal and as soon as I stop walking like an old lady ;)
.JPG)
