June 28th-Railroad Days 5K

29:12! 29:12! Wooo!

Okay. This race was my first pm race-7:15 to be exact. Luckily, it was a BEAUTIFUL night out. Not too hot, a little bit a breeze and sunny. Can't beat that. I got my friend Barb to come so I was SO excited! The boys had a kid race at 6:30 and they got ribbons. Too bad everyone doesn't get a prize in the grown-up race, LOL!

Kid Race: Alex was telling everyone that he was going to win. That's my boy, ever-so-confident. Christian spent most of the waiting time hanging out next to me. He refused to put his number on so he went numberless. Alex took off really fast at the beginning and I started running with Christian. He wanted to hold my hand so we took off together. Once he saw Brent he wanted him so we traded off. When they got to the 1/2 way point Christian asked Brent to carry him so Brent did. It was hilarious. I kept watching for Alex because I thought he'd be in the front. I think shooting off so fast at the beginning wore him out because he was trudging along pretty slowly during the 2nd 1/2. Poor guy. He saw me and wanted to hold my hand so I went with him a bit then sent him on too the finish line. He was so proud of himself!

My race: We hung around a bit and I tracked Barb down. We got in line around the middle I'd say. I really don't know how many people were there. We took off and someone, I think it was Rebecca, yelled our names so I was excited about that! My time was pretty good at the one mile mark-I was actually surpised! I saw my boss and her kids yelling at me and my mom, dad and Alex waving at me. I heard Alex yell "good job mommy!". Made my day, I tell ya.

I headed out and avoided a sprinkler set up-I didn't want to get wet quite yet. I made it to mile 2 in pretty good time as well, but I was getting tired. The pasta I had for supper wasn't feeling too good at that time! I hit the sprinkler on the way back in and my feet got soaked. Not so good.

I got closer and could see the finish line so I started sprinting a bit. Then I heard Brent yell my name and my boss's kids yell at me so I started running faster. It was so much fun having people there that I knew! Makes soo much difference. At the time I thought it was a coworker of mine yelling my name, but it was Brent.

The last number I saw was 29:11 so knew to tack on a few so I told people I finished in 29:12 and I was right! Alex ran over to me right away and told me "Way to go mommy! You won! Let's go get your trophy!" So sweet. At least I'm the winner to him! I told him that mommy wouldn't get a trophy, so we got juice and cookies instead and he was happy with that.

I tracked down Barb again and she did really well too! We waited around for the awards and Barb got an award! I was soo happy for her! I am determined to get a railroad spike next year. I was 1 1/2 minutes behind the 3rd place person so I have some work to do.

Favorite race so far, hands down!

June 14th-QC Race for the Cure

Yup, Race for the Cure..again! This race I have two times a correct time and an incorrect time. And I'm not just saying this because one of the times is really good for me. Anyway, I wore my garmin and started it right at the starting line and stopped it right at the finish line. That time was 29.51! My "official" time according to my chip was 31.19. From what I understand the chip starts when the gun goes off and stops when you cross the line. That's the only way I can expalin the big time differences. We started SO far back in line it was crazy. We ran part of the beginning up on the sidewalk to get around the walkers, standers, strollers, wheelchairs, etc. Did I mention the standers/slow mo walkers? They were supposed to be at the back of the crowd and were obviously not.

Back to the beginning. I went with my friend, her two friends and one of their coworkers. I was going to ride with them, but I needed to come home sooner, so I followed them up there. We parked at wandered around a bit then got in line. It was SO crowded. Not as crowded as the Peoria Race for the Cure, but still up there. Like I said, after the gun went off we headed off onto the sidewalk to try and get around everyone. We passed one area and it smelled SO bad like garbage. Yuck, just what you want when you are huffin & puffin. It started thinning out and I lost my two friends (who were apparently right behind me the whole way, if only I had known!)

There were bands playing along the route, so that was cool. It was really good weather, I didn't really start to get REALLY hot until the 2nd mile. Then I was working up a good sweat. I was glad I wore a tank and not the race shirt.

I saw the finish line and started sprinting a little sooner than usual. It was different than usual. At other races I've been at there have been "officials" standing there and people cheering you on. I didn't see that here. There were people there waiting for others...I don't know, it was just different.

My friends had told me to meet them at the clock tower. I look around and cannot find a clock tower. So, I got my chip taken off, grabbed some food and kept looked. I asked someone and they told it was on the street, so I took off walking and it wasn't there. Then I thought maybe it was farther down on the river so I walked there and didn't see it either. So, I kept walking around feeling like a fool for not being able to find the stupid clock tower! I finally see one of them and they are all together standing at the finish line. We got some more food and then I headed home.

The results were up by the time I got home-I was 74 out of 270 for my age group (I should have been 58 according to my time), 305 out of 1889 for the women and 652 out of 2619 for everyone.

Oh, and I FINALLY got a shirt that fits! Yah!

Next race is at Railroad Days. It's at night and the boys are racing right before it-I better start training them, ha!

June 6th-Family House 5K

Yesterday was the Family House 5K in Peoria. It's actually for a really good cause. The family house provides a place to stay for families of people at Peoria hospitals. There were only 130 people there, which was kind of nice. I came in 6th out of my age group at 30:14, finally broke that 31 minute mark! I was panting pretty hard by the end. Usually I get at a comfortable pace and trudge along. This time I decided to push myself, and really try. I'm feeling it today, my legs are a little sore and they NEVER are!

I got there too early and picked up my race packet. With ANOTHER mis-sized shirt. Why, why do I never get the size shirt that I request? Oh well, it worked pretty well to mop off my sweaty head after the race. I sat in the car and read awhile. The sky got dark and it started downpouring. I decided that I would run it if it was still raining since I drove all that way (and I'm stubborn). The rain finally quit and then it was just kind of cloudy. The sun peaked out a bit and I was mentally willing it to go away-it was already steamy out and the sun was not going to help matters. Luckily, it stayed away during the race.

We all lined up on the wet pavement and the announcer told us to all hope it didn't start raining or that the sun wouldn't come out, lol. We took off and I started my Garmin. Man, I LOVE my garmin. I got sweaty awfully quickly so I started purposefully running through puddles to splash myself with the water. I wondered if I actually layed down in a puddle if anyone would notice. Hmmm. We looped around an area and passed the starting point. I panicked for a second thinking that we'd have to loop around again (and we had already went 2 miles) so I checked my bib and it did indeed say a 5K so I calmed down. While I was doing this a man yelled at me to keep my head up so I could breathe. Well, duh. Um, okay, calm yourself down, oh spectator annoying man.

The route cut back early and I could finally see the finish line. I checked my garmin and it said I had .1 miles left so I started sprinting. I couldn't let the old man slightly behind me beat me! I broke out sprinting and the finish line people started grinning at me. I passed the finish line and they held up their hands yelling "you're done, you're done, slow down!" I think they thought I was going to run them over. The last number I saw was 30:14, so close to my official 30:19.

I headed over to the food (may favorite part) and there was donuts, pizza, oranges, gatorade, banana bread....I loaded a plate and sat down. It was sunny then and it was HOT. I grabbed some water and headed home. I got home only 1/2 hour after the boys woke up so that was nice.

I definitely need to pick up a hat. I was kicking myself for not having one when I thought I was going to have to run in the rain. I picked up some shorts yesterday that had a key pocket. Carrying your keys while running sucks! I just had my clicker, but still.

Even though this has been hottest weather race, I had a lot of fun at this one. Maybe it was because there wasn't as many people so it was a little less intimidating. I don't know. Anyway, onto next week. Next saturday is the Quad Cities Race for the Cure. I'm going with several other people so it should be fun!