Another Race Under the Belt!

I’m finally blogging about my last race, which happened 9 days ago, as I’ve been able to download the picture from my cell phone.  Heaven forbid that I blog about it without some picture to accompany! 😉

Saturday the 17th I ran the Daniel Igali 5K Run for the Kids.  The original plan for this race was for Andy to run it.  He had been working on (or at least thinking about!  ha, ha!) completing the Couch to 5K program and so he had agreed to register for the 5K race in Surrey for motivation.  Long story short (or short story long), he was not ready to run it, so I happily took his place in the race!

I met up with a friend of my sister’s who was also doing the race, so I had someone to wait with while getting rained on at the start line.  Ya, not the most favorable weather conditions, but I still had a blast doing the race. Still weird to me how much I am enjoying this running gig! Who would have guessed?  NOT ME!

My time, according to my Nike+ (as this race was not chip timed), was 28’18”, which I was very happy with.  Almost exactly 3 months since my first 5K, and I’d chopped 5 min and 27 seconds from my time.

The race was at Bear Creek Park, and the same course I will do for my 10K in November (we just do the loop 2x).  It was a nice course of trails and paved paths through the park, and so I am looking forward to it already.  Just hoping it doesn’t pour rain that day, as you can get pretty wet when running for almost an hour!

As the race was hosted by Olympic gold medalist Daniel Igali, the 2010 Vancouver Olympic mascots showed up.  I got my picture take with Miga and Quatchi, as I knew my kids would get a kick out of it.  I did feel like a bit of a dork, but it was worth it!

Hangin’ with the mascots!

And while I am on the topic of running, I should share where I am at with running lately.  I really have gotten to the point where I am enjoying running.  No, certainly not every minute of every run.  But I LOVE the feeling after the run is over!  Once I am home, stretched and in the shower, I feel AMAZING! And it is worth getting out of bed early, getting wet, being cold, huffing and puffing and getting sweaty for that feeling. It just starts my day off GREAT!

Unfortunately, I sometimes forget this when I am snuggled under a warm duvet and the house is still quiet.  It is dark outside, and often I can hear the water pouring out of the drain pipe.  And it is SO HARD TO GET UP.  I regret it later if I don’t, but I have a huge mental battle while laying there when my alarm goes. I’ve never been the one to work out or run with a companion, but I often wish on these mornings that I was meeting someone, as this would give me some incentive to get up and go.

I managed to get up this morning, but the lack of rain (and the knowledge that it will likely be back tomorrow) was helpful.  And now I feel so good, knowing that my work-out is done and I’m ready to get on with my day.

Off to make some coffee and my delicious pumpkin oat bran!

A picture I took with my cell phone the first time I ran a 10K distance!