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| Justin's Mom with the girls at Cheddars. |
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| All of us after lunch. (Thank you Sky for the finger print on the lens) |
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| Going thru all the goodies Nana bought. |
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| Before the 1 mile fun run! |
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Colby getting his medal.                     I got to sleep in on Saturday because my girls had stayed the night with my parents. What a treat! I love to sleep in. Thanks Mom and Dad! Pretty quickly after I got up we left to go get the girls and go to town to meet Justin's Mom (Carla) and her husband at Cheddars. I got the portabella mushroom sandwich, it was so good. I loved it. Carla, Paili, and I left from there to go do some school clothes shopping for Pai. Justin, Keith, and Skylar left and went back home to put Sky down for her nap. We had a great time shopping! I even picked myself up some new running capri's for tonight's run! We never would have found the race start point if it hadn't been for Janet. I thought I knew but it ended up that, I didn't! That was pretty stressful for me for a few minutes until we reached our destination. My parents met us there and so did my brother. I was so surprised to see him there. What a great surprise! Paili had ridden with Carla and Keith to the race. (They had decided to stick around to watch her run.) She was going to do her first run also, a 1 mile fun run! Last night, I had been on Facebook and saw that status of a friend of mine, Ruthie, that said she had overbooked herself and had already paid for her race. Would anyone like to run under her name. I messaged her that I would take her up on that offer! I had already registered but not paid for the race yet.When I walked up to the line, I wasn't quite sure how to deal with the situation but thankfully we got it all worked out and they even changed Ruthie's name to mine in the race results. Colby, Madison, and Paili did their race and did great. It was so fun to watch them. Paili finished her race with a HUGE smile on her face then immediately started crying that her belly hurt. It quickly stopped hurting and she was back to normal. At this point, I started really looking around at "the competition". I felt so out of place. I'm way more overweight than they are, well, I AM overweight. Most of them looked like the just stepped off of Runners World magazine. I hadn't brought a shirt that I normally would run in because I thought that everyone would wear the shirt that is given to you at the race. Well, that was wrong. I'm not sure I saw anybody wearing their new shirts. I didn't want to put mine on at that point so as not to draw any more attention to myself. I ended up running in just a normal t-shirt. A 10k race was taking place that night too. They lined the 10k runners up first and they got to start about 15 minutes before the 5k runners.The closer to the race start time the more I started seeing more people who looked more like me, I even saw girls bigger than me! That made me feel a bit better. I saw all kinds of really fun tools and tricks that runners use. IE:Janet tucks her shoelaces into her shoes so they don't slap her legs while running. DUH! Why didn't I think of that? I could have been doing that all this time! Finally, the lined the 5k runners up and shot the gun--off we went. I heard the announcer saying something about 3.2 miles. All I could think was wait...it was supposed to be 3.1 miles, I'm 31, not 32! Oh well, no turning back now! I could hear my loved ones cheering for me! What a rush! There were so many people it way really difficult finding my rhythm at first. Wow, there were some really seriously FAST runners. I was passed by a ton of people pretty quickly. OLD people, young people, skinny people, not so skinny people, men, women, grandma's, grandpa's, probably even some great grandmas! It was really amazing. I'd never run on gravel before so that was a new sensation. I kept my same pace, slow and steady. It was fun seeing all the different running styles. I wasn't even to the halfway point when I started seeing runners running towards me. They were really fast. I tried to stay out of the way and still keep my pace up. It was starting to get dark and I was really kicking myself for leaving my headlamp in my purse with my Mom. They had the trail lit with glow in the dark sticks in paper bags. Not very much light was seen but at least it marked the trail so I didn't run off of it! I got to the halfway point and they had people there passing out water as people ran by. I was feeling pretty warm at this point and I noticed as I was running how many people were still behind me. Way more than I thought! 10k runners started passing me on my way back. I was so impressed with them! I can't imagine running a 10k. Maybe someday, maybe not. We'll see. I had stopped to walk just a couple of times by this point for as short of a time as I could. I was still feeling pretty good about it. I noticed that almost the entire way back to the finish line was uphill. I try to avoid hills in my runs. I can't do that anymore! Probably the last 1/2 mile, I could feel my ankles. I never have problems with my ankles. I think it had to do with running in gravel. As I got closer to the finish line I could hear the cheers of people, music, and see lights. I was feeling pretty pumped and excited. My Mom, Dad, Lee, Skylar and Jenny's 2 boys were the very first people that I came too and I could hear them yelling and cheering me on. I started tearing up as I listened to their encouragement and could hear the excitement in their voices. I passed Becky Haut cheering me on. I saw Janet in the crowd with such a look of excitement and pride on her face. I pretty much couldn't see at this point from the tears gathering in my eyes. Then I saw the rest of my cheering section and lost it.Justin, Paili, Aaron, Erin, Maddy and Colby all there yelling. Then I saw the other sign that they had been hiding from me it said--Happy Birthday!!! Way to go Elise!! It was so very emotional to see them and feel how proud they all were of me. They didn't care that I was not even close to the beginning of the pack of people, they wouldn't have cared had I come in dead last. I finished. I finished strong. Slow, but strong. I'll never forget seeing the faces of my family and best friends. I love you guys so very much. Thank you for making my first run one that I will never forget. My parents and Lee got over there pretty quickly after I finished and told me how proud they were of me. I was so glad they were there. Skylar wanted her Momma so I took her from my Dad and she felt so heavy to my arms. Everytime someone would try to take her from me she let them know she wanted to stay with me. Such a sweet girl. I went to look at the race results. I finished in 45:40. I was hoping to finish in the 30-39 minute range. I will eventually. I'm blaming it on womanly problems, gravel, and hills! Ha! The fastest time was a 17 year old boy who finished at 17:48. I finished #201 of 215 5k runners. The good news...I have TONS of room for improvement! After the run, we had decided that I really deserved to go get ice cream at Anderson's. When we pulled in I got to see Jay and Julie St Clair. (Jay married Justin and I and he was my youth minister growing up.) I love them! It was great chatting with them even for just a few minutes. We cut it short so we wouldn't miss out on getting ice cream because they were closing. I got English toffee and toasted coconut. It was so good. The manager even gave Sky her own little vanilla cup with sprinkles for free. They were so nice! Happy Birthday to me! Erin and I took the kids with us and headed on to their house. I was talking to Erin about how disappointed I was in my time. Colby piped up from the back seat, "Elise, you're just a big handsome girl!" I love, love, love that boy. The kids serenaded me while wearing some pretty silly outfits. I had a birthday that I will never forget. |
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