A Walk at the Park

Tonight for part of our Family Home Evening we loaded up the kids, bikes, and the wagon and headed for Winton Woods. It was the first time in years that we have gone down to walk around the lake together. We had a wonderful time. We brought the wagon for Jared, but at around the third of a mile marker he was already out and ready to run. He stayed close to me the whole way around the lake and kept calling out, "Run Mom!" and then we would run together.

He ran a mile.

No wonder I can't get him to sit still first thing Sunday morning for sacrament meeting. The boy has TONS of energy!

It was exciting to me to run with him and not become the least bit winded. I felt like I was on The Biggest Loser tv show where at the end they show how much healthier the person is and the person says, "I always wanted to be able to keep up with my kids." I still have a long way to go to reach my weight loss goals, but I remember the first time we went to walk around the lake, I asked Shane to drop me off at the half mile mark so I could walk back to the beginning. At that time, I couldn't even WALK a mile. That was 3 kids ago. Now, I've run two 10K races and five 5K races. It is exciting to me that for now, growing older means I'm also growing stronger.

Savannah on the other hand chose to ride in the wagon pretty much the whole way......

The Black Squirrel 5K

On Saturday the 27th of September our Pink Princess Racing Team went to Glendale to run the Black Squirrel 5K. It was a blast!

Here is our team photo. Left to right: Sylvia, Courtney (Sylvia's niece), Me (Maura), and Mikayla.
This was the first time any of us have done to the Black Squirrel. It was MUCH harder than Sylvia or I were expecting. When we picked up our race packets the night before the race, we were told that the first part of the race was the hardest and that it got easier after that. WOW! Talk about an understatement!!! After only a few tenths of a mile the race went up a horrible hill. I will forever call it "heartbreak hill". It was a real struggle for me to keep my feet running all the way up. I felt like my feet weighed an extra 10 pounds a piece. Due to the hurricane earlier this month, there was a lot of debris still on the road: lots of twigs, leaves, etc. When I finally saw the one mile mark, I had already decided that they had neglected to put mile markers on the race!!! ONE MILE????? Are you KIDDING ME? I swear I thought I had already gone at least a mile and a half. What a disappointment! :)

My sport watch's battery died over a year ago and since I wasn't running much, I haven't replaced it yet. So, in place of a watch, I took my trusty cell phone with me so I could look down at the time and see what my pace was. Unfortunately, the print on my cell phone screen is kind of small and with how much my hand was bouncing I couldn't read the numbers at ALL!

I had been sick for several days with a sore throat and wasn't sure I would be able to run the whole race. I'm happy to say that not only was I able to run, but my finish time was surprisingly good! I finished in 31:44 minutes. (I had been hoping to finish in 36 minutes or less!) My legs felt like JELLO for 5 minutes afterwards, but it was so exciting to see Eric, Margret, and her kids, and Mikayla waiting for me at the finish line!

Here's Mikayla crossing the line! She did GREAT! I keep complaining about how hard the Black Squirrel course was. Mikayla says she liked it! What an awesome runner she is!

Okay, here's me. I'm huffing and puffing, but notice the girl behind me in the cute blue "running skirt". I had passed her about halfway through the race and as we were coming down the last couple tenths of a mile she passed me!!! This could not be! I poured it on the last hundred yards and beat her! Who says I'm competetive???

Courtney did wonderful! She too said the course wasn't that bad! I loved getting to know her better. She is a real sweetheart and I can't wait to run more races with her! Her finish time was super!

Last, but NOT LEAST! Here is my amazing friend Sylvia. She had a rough week too and the course was STRENUOUS! But, I am so proud of her. She did not give up! Sylvia finished really strong even though she wasn't feeling very good. Courtney, Mikayla, and I walked back along the course to find her and walk in with her. It was such a good feeling when she crossed the finish line and we got to cheer for her. She is an amazing woman!

Now this is my favorite picture of them all. Here is our team family. I and Mikayla are in back. Then we have Justin, Jessica with Heston, Sylvia, Margret, Courtney, and Eric. What a blast it was to have Margret and her kids with us at the race! The four of us runners came home with really cool participation medals and all of us came home with wonderful memories of a fun morning.

I can't wait for next year!

(okay, i could do without the hills! Sylvia is making me go back to train so we'll be ready for next year..... yuck!!!)