Before the big race was the itty bitty bun run , where I believe it was about a half mile (maybe a quarter mile) that the little ones ran, well Tyler (age 4) wanted to do that one so I jogged with him and the rest of the kids, cheering him on the whole time, and we finished the race together! It was so awesome, he wanted to stop because he was so tired but I kept cheering him on and telling him go go go we can do this Tyler, a couple times we even held hands while running.
He finished his race in 3:39. I'm so proud of him for being the youngest one and he finished!!
My daughter Grace (age 9) finished first for the girls in the itty bitty bun run. I was so proud of her. She finished first there and then did the 5k in 41:05 (Grace, Greg & Tyler crossed together)
Then we walked across the street for my big race, I lined up with my family just to start and when they said READY SET GO, I said Ok guys love you, and I took off at a comfortable jog, I learned from last year full sprinting at the start line doesn't work and empties all my energy, so anyway I jogged well past the first mile marker, about 1.5 miles walked for 30 seconds and jogged again some more, there were a couple times I took 30 second "breaks" just to get my breath again and the I'd pick back up the jogging. Just kept telling myself I can do this, I can do this, then we rounded the corner and I knew I was almost done maybe 3/4 of a mile left and I got excited, and started pushing myself a bit more, when I rounded the next corner I could see the clock in the distance and that really encouraged me because it was in the 35 min range, so I full sprinted to the finish line because I wanted to be 36 mins or less, that had been my goal for a year. I crossed the finish line in 35:54 . I beat my last year time by 10 mins!!! WOO HOOO I DID IT, WOO HOOO I DID IT!!!
After I crossed the finish line I walked back and found my family, Greg, Grace & Tyler we're nearly done so I told them GO GO GO, so I kept walking finally found Miranda & Hannah as they had fallen behind and finished the race with them too, pushing them and encouraging them to finish.. They finished in 46:37
Just a comparison photo, this was me last year at the same 5k (Me 2nd person on left)
Time 45:39 (really pushing myself hard to finish in that time)
Yesterday -
35:54 mins!
I have come so far on this journey, not just in the weight loss department but in the mental & physical areas as well --to go from not being able to walk up my driveway without feeling like I was dying to walking a 5k and now running a 5k, WOW! I'm just so proud of myself
