Won Our First Race!!!

We accomplished our sub-21 minute goal...official time was 20:52, which won us the race!

A 20:52 is typically not fast enough to win a race, but we strategically picked out a small race. Hey, a win is a win, right?

The other runners were very nice and good sports about being beaten by a jogging stroller. In fact, we beat most men, too - we were the fourth overall competitor.

I wasn't sure if I was going to be up to par to run fast since yesterday I was sick. The sickness started with my Dad and spread to the babies. Let me just say that dealing with two puking babies is much harder than running a fast 5k with them! David had asked me if I was going to blog about the experience but I opted not to because it was just too gross. Trust me, there were no photo opportunities.

Yesterday I took a nap when the babies napped and found that I was unable to get up. I refused to accept that I would miss our race so I took every medicine we had in our medicine cabinet, went to bed at 7pm and hoped for the best.

I woke up feeling better, albeit not perfect.

I asked myself, Should I run? Should I not run?
One moment I would feel fine, the next moment I wanted to lay down.

Ultimately, I decided to gulp a bunch of coffee and pretend that yesterday never happened. I was never sick.

By the time we got to the race, I was in the mood to run. That is what happens when you put on a cute running skirt, your running socks and drink a bunch of coffee...you must run at that point.

I surveyed my competitors and decided that this would be our race to win. The race started with a long downhill and ended with a long uphill - just as I expected. It also went along the path we did our speedwork on and just like I expected, we would have a tailwind in one direction and headwind in the other.

I knew if I wanted to win this race, I had to fly down the downhill..which I did, at a 5:30 pace. Here we are leading the pack:


and flying:


There was a bit of a setback at the bottom of the hill since we had to go over a curb to get onto the sidewalk. After that obstacle, I tried to run as fast I could to make up for it. We ran to the end of the lake, up another little hill (the one we included in Tuesday's training) and then turned around to face the headwind.

The headwind was hard and I kept fantasizing about stopping and laying down in the grass. But that is pretty normal for me during a 5k...I always feel like stopping after mile 2.

I push on and we get to the uphill which I had been dreading in the back of my head the entire time. I knew the number 2 runner was trying to catch me and this uphill was her advantage. The hill hurt just as much as I expected...Just keep running. You are almost there.



You always know I am hurting when I dont turn my head and smile at the camera:


It felt pretty good though to finish number one...although technically Brenna was the first overall female!


My friend Suzanne ran the race (with a double stroller) too and brought special medals for this kids!