5K: the story.

You all know that I participated in a 5K, so now you get to hear how it went!

Here's our team! I think I need to get better running shirts, otherwise Aeropostale will have to start paying me for advertising. :P

So we arrived at the golf course where it was taking place, got all registered and were given our numbers and chips. My mom, Lydia, and Josiah had numbers all together, 73, 74, and 75. There I was with 180. What's the deal there? The race didn't start for another hour and a half, so we just sat around talking to people my mom knew from the Chamber. It was definitely interesting watching the 250 or so people show up, quite the interesting bunch. Is it just me or does anyone else think the rat-tail hairstyle or the style with the thick mohawk is super ugly?? The number of young boys I've seen lately with those...yuck. But anyways. The Chick-Fil-A cow was walking around having a good time with everyone, so that was rather entertaining. The weather was perfect! Not hot, and too chilly either. The clouds were looking a little threatening but it only started misting afterwards.

Everyone started getting lined up at the starting line, which also happened to be the finish line too. The gun went off and we were all off! The beginning was rather awkward because everyone was right there all trying to start their own pace, I was afraid I was going to get trampled there. But then once we all got out onto the course, it was all good. Lydia had asked if I would stay with her the whole time since she didn't want to run the whole time. But I like to run, so off I went at my own pace. Sorry, Lydia!

I started out by just jogging slowly and Josiah was right next to me for a little while, until he started huffing and puffing quite a bit, so I told him to slow down a little and keep at a slower pace since we still had a ways to go. So he dropped back and I kept going. We ran along the back nine of the golf course, which went up and down and had some hairpin turns. We were on pavement most of the time, except for the time we ran on grass, which definitely is different.

They had water stations at a few points where volunteers (those are people that help, right, Lydia? haha) would hand out water. Drinking while running is rather difficult, I tell you. A few people definitely sloshed all over themselves. Haha. I was running with the same group of people the majority of time. There were like 3 boys around 13 with me, which made me feel a little bad. But then I figured that they were probably in sports at school that required more physical stuff that I ever did. Just trying to make myself feel better you know. :P

Once in a while I had to slow down and just walk so I could breathe better. We go on 3 mile walks regularly, but running that is just a little bit different. We were getting close to the parking lot where the finish line was and I was thinking, "Alright! the end! " So not the case, we had to turn and run for quite a bit more, on grass now. Shoot. But since we were nearing the end, people were all along cheering you on. But being that close to the building and parking lot had it's downfalls too, all the food was being prepared and boy, did it smell amazing! Tempting rather. Just taunting you the whole way.

I finally turned the last corner! Some people just walked into the finish line, but I wanted to keep going strong even to the last little bit. I ran through, camera flashed, chip beeped, and I came to a halt. All I wanted was to sit down and get some cold water. They had a whole cooler full of water bottles, so I grabbed one and went to get my goodie bag and sit down and wait for the rest of my team to arrive.

Next after me was Josiah, 7 minutes afterward. Then came Lydia, 10 minutes after me. And a little bit later comes Mom running to the finish line. We three start cheering her on for the last little bit. We're all hungry and ready to go get some of that delicious smelling food. So we head inside with our sore legs and throats. We headed over to the Outback booth, got a plate of meat and salad and Lydia and I went to find a empty space at the tables. We were checking out our freebies and eating. We got some good stuff, tshirt, water bottle, pedometer, keychain screwdriver set, other drinks and energy bars, coupons, and other random stuff.

I went to grab some strawberry shortcake, which was very tasty! And I made Lydia come with me to get some chips. So I made her miss receiving her medal. My bad! But yes, Lydia received a medal in her age group! Second place in the 19 and under girls. Too bad it wasn't a few weeks earlier, so I could've been in that age group too! I so could have won first place. I knew there would be disadvantages to no longer being a teen. Kidding. But go Lydia! We watche everyone else receive their prizes. The first place overall woman was just 9 minutes ahead of me! The overall winner ran it in just 16 minutes! How crazy is that?! As for me, I was in 37th place of the women, out of about 100. 31 minutes was my time! I was not terribly disappointed with that. :)

We hung around for a little while longer for the door prizes. No wins there for us. It was after 9, so we decided it was high time to head home to just relax.

And there you have it! Sorry I'm not the best writer in the world, but I did use paragraphs this time! Just for you, Jeremy! :) And it's tough to take pictures while running, so that was the single one we got.