a great accompishment.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was training to run a 5K.

My training was approximately 3 weeks long.  Not really what I had planned.

Dave said, "man, if you trained in 3 weeks for a 5K, think what you can do if you trained for months."

Glad to know he was impressed.

He wouldn't run a block - even if someone was chasing him.

And really, that last week before the race, I think I got one run in.

It was a bad week.  And the hope of being able to run a 5K at the end of the week was not looking promising.

Colds, sore throats, ear infections, vomit and a somehow hurting my back enough that I couldn't move for a day, and it hurt to breathe - took over our week.

And then to top things off - I accidentally slept in my contacts the night before the race.

My eyes KILLED when I woke up and they were red and burning all day - sunglasses were a MUST.

I was thinking I'd have to end up walking the 3.1 miles - because of my back.

Even after warming up, I just wasn't sure how far I could deal with the pain.

I was also VERY nervous - the furthest run I had made up to this point was only 2.25 miles.

A group of girls from our Sunday School class all signed up together.

Here's our BEFORE picture...

Jess, Kendall, Lori and I ran together for most of the way.

A little past the 2 mile marker I had to get up close to Jess so she could push me the rest of the way.

My brain was saying it was time to stop.

Of course you reach a point that you know you can't stop, you're just TOO close to making it!

 And having a friend at your side makes it much easier.

I was proud of us that last mile.

And especially that last stretch - we pushed it HARD.

It felt like a sprint, but I'm not sure how fast we really were going at the end of 3 miles.

We made it!  We ran the WHOLE thing!

Dave took this picture (actually all of these pictures)-  he and the kids were right at the finish line to see us!

Unfortuneately, we also hear that a local newspaper snapped a shot of us near the finish line too, and posted it in the paper.

I had to sort through about 6 different shots to get one of us that didn't look absolutely horrible.

I am going to guess that the newspaper photographer did not do the same, and didn't really take our feelings into consideration. I think a picture of us at mile 1 would have been much better.

We still haven't seen this picture that we've been told about.

And maybe that's a good thing.

Jess and I finished 295th and 296th out of 969 people.

Dave reminded me that was almost in the top 25%!! Yeah!

Here is our AFTER picture - with our nice red, patchy faces.

The best part of the race - food afterwards!

Dave brought Taylor and Mason to the race to watch.

They were pretty much in awe of all the people.

Taylor had to wear her running clothes that day. She was upset she had to wear her shorts under her sweatpants because it was a little chilly.

And then back at home afterwards, she wanted to wear my number and do some running for herself.

I should probably cherish these days in which she admires all that I do.

I'm afraid one of these days she's not going to think I'm so cool anymore.

But for now, she's a good self-esteem booster.

I need to get signed up for another race to keep myself running.

It's been 2 weeks since this 5K and I haven't gotten a run in YET.

I'll blame it on a week of being sick.

But now it's time to get my booty in gear again, before the summer heat gets here.

Anyone know of any good races in the area this fall?

5K and under please.