Third Place.......What??????

The next race I ran was a 5K to benefit Addie's Faith Foundation, formed to fight childhood cancer.  I picked this race for a number of reasons. 1.) I had never run a 5K before, 2.) it was for a great cause, 3.) it was on a Sunday, so it didn't disrupt my long training runs on Saturday and 4.) they had a 1K for the kids to run.

Everyone was so excited for the race.  The kids had been wanting to run with me, even though they couldn't believe I could run faster and longer than them, and they wouldn't be able to keep up.  I am an old lady to them, how I could run further than them?  So I was excited to get them to a race they could actually run.

Tracy and her family joined us.  Tracy and I decided at the beginning of the race just to go all out.  What was 3 miles when we were up to running a lot more than that?  Let's just give it everything we have and see where it gets us.  Thanks to Tracy's Garmen we were able to pace ourselves and we ran very hard at a 7:45 pace, which is WAY faster than my normal 9:40 or so.  But it was for a short period so I was able to maintain, but I could not have run another minute after I crossed that finish line.  I thought I was going to throw up for the first time running.  All I kept thinking was "don't throw up in front of the kids". I didn't want them to remember that when they thought of running. :)  I was able to hold it all in and after some water was just fine.

Well come to find out Tracy and I tied for THIRD place.  That is just insane.  I couldn't believe we did that well.  We were very proud of ourselves!  We even got a 3rd place medal.  I started to feel like a real runner.  Like I could really climb to great heights.  I was more pumped than ever.

 Can you tell I was sucking air big time?  But I love this pic b/c it shows Tracy and I crossing a finish line together, maybe one of the only times that is going to happen. :)