Girls Inc. Run for the Treasure...and another PR!

This past weekend I ran my third 5K. It was my second since I've really started running, and my second to run with my dad. A few weeks ago when we realized Matthew was going to have Columbus Day off from school, we knew we wanted to go down to Florida to visit my parents. Right away my dad and I looked up some races we could do together. We eventually picked the Girls Inc. Run for the Treasure 5K, 10K and half marathon. One of the reasons why we picked this race was that it was right across the street from my parents house at Pier Park. And it had a pirate theme to go along with the pirate festival that was beginning at Pier Park later that day. No, we didn't dress like pirates, sorry.

Since my dad had picked up our race packets the night before, and we had less than a five minute drive, we didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn. But we did get there early enough to cheer for the half-marathoners as they started their race at seven am.

Before the start of the race.

My dad was running the 10K, so we warmed up a little and then he sarted his race at seven thirty. I was all on my own until the 5K started at eight. I was so nervous! At least this time I remembered to get closer to the front of the pack at the start. Last time I was little annoyed with how tight it go at the start. When the horn finally blew everyone took off like they were shot out of a cannon. I try really hard to pace myself slow for the first mile, so a lot of people passed me right off the bat. I tried not to worry about it, and promised myself I would pass them later! I saw my dad on the other side of the road about one mile in as he was heading back in the 10K. Around the halfway point I knew I was doing pretty good, because my Nike app told me my time was thirteen minutes. After the turnaround I was running right into the hot, hot morning Florida sun. Ugh. It was a little brutal. When I turned the corner for the final stretch to run back into the park for the finish line my dad, having aready finsihed his race, came running out to see how far back I was. He said later, he was surprsied to see me so close to the finish line already! He also told me my mom, Matthew and the kids were waiting for me at the finish line and that definitely helped me finsih faster! Also, he told me he had my time at 25 minutes and change. I couldn't believe it! I guess I had stopped paying attention to my GPS on my phone and was just running. I had no idea I was going that fast! When I finally turned around to the home stretch I saw Elijah right away, he was wearing red and I took out my headphones so I could hear them shouting "Go mommy!" 

Matthew was my official race photographer. Also, I look hilarious running...

Sort of smiling.

After I crossed the finish line and met up with my family we waited for my official time. I had the time off my app, but you know you have to get the official one! They had a big screen TV with the leaders for each age group announced and I saw right away that my dad had won grand master, he also came in third overall for the 10K. So we waited and finally I saw the results for the female 25-29...and saw that I had WON my age group with a time of 26:43! Basically the fastest run ever for me. I was so excited and proud of myself it's ridiculous. And it was so much more fun to share the experience with all of my family!

My little fan club.

One more! (Elijah was already dressed for the pirate festival.)

With my lovely medal. It even says "First Place!" 

My dad getting his award from the pirate wench.

So, here's the breakdown. I came in 1st out of 5 for my age group. 18th overall out of 105. And 8th out of all the women.

My next race is November 9th, if the National parks are open again by then! 

Getting a little ahead of myself...

If you know me at all, even just a little bit from this blog, you know how much I love my birthday. As the years pass I always find myself wondering if this will be the year I stop looking forward to and enjoying my big day. And every year that passes leaves  me with the same answer, "nope!" Anyway, as usual I was thinking about my birthday the other day. See, we just passed October 3, meaning my birthday is six months away. I already told Matthew what I want to do to celebrate my 29th birthday. Atlanta. Shopping. Cheesecake Factory. See, I'm easy.

But then it hit me, if I'm turning twenty-nine next year, that means the year after that I will be *gasp* THIRTY! Like any female leaving her twenties, I freaked out a little bit, but then I shrugged it off. (No, really!) Because the older I get, the more I learn, the better person, mom, and wife I become, so why would I be bothered by another year? And I mean, really, I already have grey hair, so how much worse can aging get? Nevermind...don't go there...

Which brings me to my point (yes, I have one!). So it's the trend now to do something BIG for your thirtieth. Skydive. (Um, no thanks.) Get a tattoo. (PASS!) Go on a big vacation. (Too expensive.) And then I realized what I would do to celebrate my thirtieth. It was an easy choice...RUN A HALF MARATHON!

Yes,  I said marathon, but notice I said a HALF! That's ONLY 13.1 miles folks. And yes, at this point the most I've ever run is 6.2, so I definitely have a loooong way to go, but I have a year and a half to get ready. I'm excited already!

In other news, I'm running my third 5K tomorrow down in Florida with my dad. It should be awesome!