I can't believe I actually did it!

For this past Christmas, my brother and sister-in-law (we'll call them J and J) entered me into the Princess 5k at Disney World. They knew that I had been "training" doing the couch to 5k program and was anxious to try to run a race. It was a great gift! The problem was the "training" fell off and I didn't really finish the program yet. I restarted it recently and got to week 6 of the 9 week program. So, I didn't feel exactly ready, but I was excited to try.

The trip to the race was approaching and I was incredibly anxious. I knew that I'd have to walk/run it and didn't know if I'd make it in the 45 minute pacing requirement. (I realize how sad that is, but hey, i'm working on it!) Also, I've gained so much weight lately that, as my favorite low carb blogger says, the city might just zone my right thigh. (Thanks, Cleo!) More than anything, though, was the fact that I still have post traumatic stress issues from running the mile in the 6th grade and being the last kid huffing and puffing through it. Really, I thought about backing out a million times. The only thing keeping me in it was that NOT doing it would disappoint my brother and I would never want to do that.

The day before the race I went to Orlando to visit with J and J. We went to an awesome dinner the night before at Seasons 52, which was amazing. We stayed up WAAYY too late and talked, but it was great because I don't get to see them nearly as much as I should. The morning of the race we had to get up wayyyy early because we hadn't picked up our race packets yet. We got there with about 30 seconds to spare, pinned on our numbers and ran to the start line. Yes, we had to run TO the race :)

The race started, and it was great! I loved it. We finished just under 45 minutes, but that was because of my need to walk/run. J and J run all the time, so they could do it easily, but, they stayed with me the whole time. We visited and laughed in between my huffing and puffing. It was fabulous and I'm SO glad I did it. I cannot even express how exciting it was to actually cross the finish line.

After the race we went to breakfast and to Whole Foods (i've never been, and wanted to after watching Top Chef), we went back to J and J's house, I showered and changed and then had to leave pretty soon to pick up C and grandma from the airport. I'll fill you in on those details later. Let's just say it took the promise of an airplane ride to get C potty trained!

At any rate, I did it, I finished, and I am so proud of myself. It was an embarassingly slow pace, but I was not the last one by far. Next, I'll finish the program and RUN the next 5k, the whole thing. I'm motivated now! Perhaps the best part, just after crossing the finish line at a run, was that C picked up the "medal" that all the finishers got and said, "Mommy, this is beautiful, I'm so proud of you!"

Some things I learned:

• Wine before race day is NOT the best idea.
• Neither is staying up really late and getting up really early.
• Don't guzzle water while running.
• You get to eat what you want the rest of the day after a race because you "just ran a 5k!" (This is not my rule, but I was assured it's the way to go!)

If anyone is interested in the couch to 5k, it can be found at http://www.coolrunning.com/. It's an amazing program and you can do it no matter HOW out of shape you are. Trust me...seriously.

At the race I saw a shirt and I'm adopting its saying as my motto for running:

DLF>DNF>DNS
Dead Last Finish is greater than Did Not Finish which is greater than Did not Start!