The Race

Before the Race!

Good:

It was a beautiful day.  So much sunshine.  So much vitamin D for our deprived bodies.  Also we shaved almost 10 minutes off our previous time when we ran the course to practice.

Better:

This race was hard for me.  The training was hard (especially when it was raining).  It was hard for me to wrap my mind around running a 10k.  Stephanie and I tossed the idea of a 5k around over a year ago.  We decided we didn't really want to.

Enter Jill.  She moved in, started walking with us, and started convincing us to run.

I'm glad we did.

In a mother's life where laundry gets dirty again, beds get unmade again, kids get hungry again, houses get messy again, it's nice to say I DID THAT.  I ran a 10k.

Best:

I've never felt more loved.

Adam and our kids rode their bikes around and joined us, cheering enthusiastically at different points of the race.  (Sometimes it was too much cheer...Mom, Mom, Mom!!  Mom!  I was too tired and too focused on keeping upright to respond.)

At the end of the race, our collective kids greeted us with acclamations and streamers.

I look so goofy in this picture but it still makes me happy.

 
Geri came to cheer for us and we saw her at three points along the course.

We'd wave at Jill's family and Stephanie's family as we ran.  Sue from our ward, who happened to be along the route helping get set up for a parade that would happen later, yelled for us both times we passed her.  I thought of Janet (at one point in the race when I was about spent) and her encouragement and supportive good luck email she'd sent me the night before.  I wanted to be able to report to her that I had done it!  Strangers along the way applauded us and handed us water.

"Keep going girls!"

And we did.

One of the race helpers, a woman holding a sign said, "Look at you three, you're even running in sync."

It was Jill and Stephanie that made the race what it was for me.  We are in sync.  We have been training but we've been doing a lot more too.  We've been pulling and pushing each other along.  We've talked about silly things and important things.  We've been a sounding board and a reality check.

We chatted while we ran the race.  We quoted SNL, "Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription.. is more cowbell!"  (It was incredibly gratifying when some cute little girls on the back of a pick-up truck clanged their cowbells for us.)  Jill sang "The Eye of the Tiger" for us when the going was hard.  She checked in with me several times as the race was nearing its end and I was nearing mine.  "Almost there, Thelma.  Almost there." Stephanie brought me a banana and juice after the race when my head was spinning.  (She may or may not have saved my life.)  After it was all over and I was gasping for air, Stephanie went over to dance to "The YMCA" with her kids.  She can't hear music and not dance to it.


My running buddies.  And life buddies.


I love those two.

Post race:  I purposefully wore a blue shirt.  It was my patriotic duty.  Between my white legs and bright red face, I was really in the spirit of things.

(Thank you Jill for some of these pictures.)