Especially for You, race against breast cancer

Becca, Patty & myself

On Sunday 10/11/09, I ran my 4th race EVER! This was my third 5K and the coldest conditions I've ever put myself into, by choice. There were thousands of people there, easily one of the biggest races in our area. There were 852 finishers in the 5K Run, 3947 finishers in the 5K Walk and 1422 finishers in the 1 Mile Walk. There were ALOT of people there! I'm presuming that if the weather had been better the turnout would have been twice as many.

The temp was below freezing. But all of us (sister Patty, daughter Becca and myself) had gotten great advice from my eldest daughter Rachelle about how to dress for the temperatures. She had advised layers, keeping in mind where you primarily get cold, i.e, arms or core. Patty and Becca both dressed with a long sleeve shirt and a vest. I double layered my arms and regretted it. I had a long sports bra on, a long sleeve shirt and a light jacket. We all wore running pants, warm socks and gloves. The best piece advice of all was the warm-up instructions. Rachelle had told us to jog around for 10-15 minutes. Nothing challenging, but man did it do the job! When it was time to get lined up for the start of the race my core was warmed up and I was able to stand there and not shiver as many around us were!

The race went well, it was pretty straight and smooth through city streets. My stamina is definitely improving and I tried to push myself as I wanted a new PR. And I got one! My time was 29:51 and my pace was 9:36. I broke the 10 minute pace! YEAH! I ended up finishing 11th in my age group (out of 26 women 50-54). I looked at the other women in my age group and some of them are VERY fast! The woman who won my age group ran a 24:04 time, 7:45 pace. WOW! That is even faster then Becca. How can that be? Needless to say there is lots of room for improvement. And when I see other women my age (and older) running that fast that tells me that I have capabilities that I can't even fathom at this time. The future will be interesting!

Next race? I'm thinking that I will do the Turkey Trot 4K/10K in Marion on November 21st. That is the Saturday before Thanksgiving. The Saturday before we leave for Cozumel to support Rachelle in her first Ironman event. Could be a busy weekend....I've yet to decide...