Girls on the Run 5k!

So today was race day! It went so much better than I thought it would, and I am so happy I did it! 

Last night I was obviously having a bad night, and it really wasn't much better this morning.  I woke up around 6am with the worse headache ever.  I got up, took some medicine, and went back to sleep.  The alarm went off around 8, so I got up and started getting ready.  Cody made me some breakfast (egg, cheese, and ham on an english muffin) and we left the house around 9:10.  I wasn't sure when to get there, but I knew the race started at 10:30 and I wanted to make sure that I was there on time. We left in kind of a hurry, and I realized once we were at the high school that I had forgotten to put deodorant on....oops!  

My cousin is a GOTR coach, as well as my pastors wife, and my cousins two girls are participants, so there was going to be a lot of people I knew.  My parents were supposed to be meeting us, so we waited by the gate into the high school track before we figured out where I was supposed to go.  Right as my parents were coming up, we found my aunt and uncle, and they told me my cousin, Alicia, was looking for me.  I left my family and went and found Alicia.  I got to say hi to her and her girls, and then I heard the announcement that Community Runners had to go line up at a different spot. I headed over that way, and stretched while they girls had their parade around the track. It was so hot just standing there waiting, I was positive I wasn't gonna make it the whole way - it was almost 80 degrees!   I heard them say start, and I waited and cheered until I saw Alicia go by, and that's when I started running!  We took off at a much faster pace than I was used to.  I only was able to stick by Alicia and her girls for a bit before I needed to walk. 

 This is right after the starting line. I'm the one in the pink shirt and black pants - ignore how fat I look :) My cousin and her girls are up at the front of this picture.

I know that not every race is like this one, but it should be!  We went through a residential area, and there were SO many people who were cheering the girls on!  There was people outside with signs, cars with radios, people with hoses and squirt guns and sprinklers, it was such a positive atmosphere to run in! The first mile FLEW by.  The second and third...not so much haha.  I tried to use my mapmyrun app, but I'm not so sure it worked.  I know that the route was a full 3.1 miles, but mymyrun only tracked me for 2.23 miles of it.  When I look at the mapmyrun website, it says both 2.23 and 2.6...so I'm not sure.  It also said that I had a 17 minute mile, but it seemed SO much faster than that. According to my phone, I finished the 2.23 in 38 minutes. Who knows! I'm not to worried about it, because it was so much fun!

Just before crossing the finish line!

My cousins, Emerson and Talia, and me after the race!

My pastors wife, Tricia, me, and my cousin Alicia

I'm so happy I did this race, and I will definitely be doing it next year! I talked to Alicia about possibly becoming a coach next year, even if I don't have kids, and she said absolutely! Hopefully by then I'll be able to run the whole thing. I think it would be SO fun to be a coach to those girls! I wish this program had been around when I was younger!  

It was a great day, and even though I was sweatier than I've ever been, and now I'm super tired, I am SO excited for my next race (which so far, is the color run, but I hopefully will be adding another one soon!)

Thank you so much for all the support and kind, positive words ya'll have given me - it helped push me through the heat and got me to the finish line, so thank you!