The family..

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SouthEast, PA, United States
This Blog is all about me and my life as a mom of a beautiful 9 year old and my dear husband who entertains me as much as my girl does.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I am a runner.

I am a runner, or at least I keep telling myself that. For anyone who has ever seen me - I do not look like someone who runs. I never thought I would run either. I couldn't even run in highschool without falling on the ground and dying after completing that one mile for the Presidential fitness test we had to do each fall. Well last fall I decided that after spending 10 months in the gym, I was ready to try running. Of course this meant overcoming a deep seated fear of treadmills. I always envision myself flying off the back and landing in a horrible heap of twisted flesh wrapped around the arc trainer behind them. I started slowly, jogging a minute or two at the end and slowly built up over time. I had a goal in mind. Last Mother's day my DH and I walked in the Philadelphia Race for a Cure 5K. At the time I said that I was going to run it in 2008. My DH, knowing my running ability, said sure honey - but I don't think you can do it.
Well I am proud to say that I did it. Not only did I run it, I ran almost the entire thing. I walked twice during the 3.1 miles. I walked about 10 steps at the water station as I attempted to navigate the piles of paper cups laying on the ground while dumping water across my face (a few drops went in my mouth) and then I walked somewhere around 2.5 miles just to reach the crest of the hill we were running up (30 seconds tops?). The best part for me was the last hill. Someone cruel decided that the finish line should be right after an arched bridge. Therefore you have to run up the bridge before you can run down the other side to the finish. As I was running up the bridge I was in dire amounts of pain. I had side stitches on both of my sides that met in the middle and wrapped all the way around to my back. Others began to walk but I willed myself to run and run I did across the crest and then as fast as I could all of the way to the finish line. I finished in a blazing 36 minutes which is not very fast but I am so proud of myself. It was such an emotional moment as I crossed that line. The crowd is standing there cheering for everyone and I had reached my goal. I almost cried from the sheer emotion of it.
This wasn't the first 5K race I did. My friend J and I ran a race in the beginning of April where I finished in 38 minutes 30 secs with much more walking involved. I also am looking for a good race to do this fall so if anyone has any suggestions let me know. Who knows, this running thing just might stick.

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