5K Race Number 2 - In Less than a Week

I need to start out by saying that whoever thought it would be a good idea to hold a 5K race on a Friday evening is insane.

Not only was the race at 6:30 last night - it came after spending an entire day of being with 21 excited kindergartners who hosted a mother's day tea for their moms and grandmas.  Oh, and I had lunch duty and took them all outside for an extra recess to try and dispel some of the extra energy that had been running through their veins all day.  Did I also mention that I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before?  No?  Oh - well then add that to the pot of why running at 6:30 on a Friay evening wasn't the smartest of ideas.

I'm sure you've guessed where I'm going with these excuses reasons.  My time was bad.  Not as bad as I thought it would be, but still pretty terrible.

I had a running partner for the race.  One of my 2nd grade students from my last placement, who had been training with me for several weeks now, wanted to run the 5K with me instead of running the 1 mile fun run that he'd been signed for.  I love his heart - he's one dedicated lil dude....plus he absolutely adores Ms. Hill (that's me..LOL)

So, we start off our race.  I'm jogging along the first stretch and I start to feel my legs scream at me.  I heard them scream out "ARE YOU CRAZY?? You've been on your feet all day long, what the heck are you doing to us now?" and "if you think we're going to do this for 3.1 miles, you've got a screw loose in that brain of yours".  I knew only 1/4 mile in that I was going to struggle with the race.

I tried to keep a positive attitude - I had to for Lil Dude.  We started doing little intervals of jogging and walking (more walking than jogging).  Lil Dude started to get a little bored once we past the one mile marker.  He wanted more running.  So, I pushed all of the leg pain out of my mind and picked the pace up for him.  He liked passing people - and so we decided to start making a game of it.  Whenever we saw people walking, we darted around them.

A little past the 2 mile mark, we came to the Hill of Death.  I swear to you that the incline on this hill was ridiculous.  It took a sharp downward incline followed by going straight back up.  We decided to run down the hill, but once we got to the bottom  I literally had to lean forward just to walk up the other side.

Towards the end of mile 2, I was hurting pretty bad.  Sweat was pouring off of me, and even Lil Dude was starting to feel tired.  His feet were hurting.  We decided to try our game again, and ran very short bursts followed by walking.

When we finally came to the last corner, I told him that we had to run to the finish line - and sprint, if possible.  We came around the corner, saw the finish line and he wanted to sprint.  I knew that we were still too far away - but I told him to go for it...and he did.  I just jogged and then picked up the pace to a slow run to cross the finish line.

I saw the time of 48:40 when I crossed the finish line.  I mumbled a little curse word under my breath - but then decided that wasn't too bad with the circumstances in which I was running.  I'm still waiting for official race results - but don't see how it will be much different than what I saw.

One thing that Lil Dude and I were very happy about?  The mass of people that were still behind us.  People were still finishing several minutes after we had.  That made us both feel pretty good - cause I had told him in the beginning that I had one goal in mind:  Never be last.

So, it was a good race.  I'm wasn't too worried about my running timetime.  I enjoyed myself - and I was very happy that I had a lil running partner.

After the race, I had to dash off to a graduation dinner.  I stopped off at Wal-Mart and had a baby wipe shower....yeah, I know...ewww, right?  It was the best I could do because coming home to drive all the way back to the party would have been pointless.  I didn't do a bad job of glamming myself up after, either.

I enjoyed an evening of great food, and awesome company.  Then I came home and feel into bed.  I don't remember anything else - I must have been out before my head even touched the pillow.

Today, I have...well....I don't have anything to do.  No more homework.  No more lesson plans to write.  I'm a free woman!!!  I will be at work next week, but just helping out where I'm needed.  It feels so great to know that in exactly one week from today - I will be a college graduate.  YEAH BABY!!

OK, time for me to get to spending my Saturday doing NOTHING.  Think I'm gonna take the kids to the park. ;)

Till next time. ;)

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