problem half solved: FIVE KAYYYY!!!!!

So before I tell you about my very first 5k, I'm going to do a little spring break recap in pictures. Here we go!

NEW HAIR! YAY!

AWESOME PEDICURE! I GOTTA DAISY ON MY TOE!

(my right foot looooves my left foot so!)

*only Abby will get that, lol!*

Other than that, I didn't take any pictures of my own. Boo, I know. I'm horrible. I just can't get used to carrying around a camera! Wish I had a smaller one that would slip in my pocket, but I don't. Oh well. Spring break was awesome! Lots of family time, and supposed relaxation (although that never really happens at the May house).

Bert and I had to come back on Saturday for Easter service, and Robert preached a really good sermon at "Sunrise" service. I liked it a lot! Probably because I helped. ;)

Anyway, so last week was good. Got back into the swing of things at school and tried to do some 5k training runs before the race this past Saturday. Here's how that went.

Monday Run: FAIL. Robert got me an awesome Nike+ for my ipod so that it could track our time for us and we'd know exactly how far we went. Long story short, I lost the sensor my first time using it. :(

Tuesday Run: Robert had a class at Johnson that evening, so he didn't even get tot run. I ran around the track at JBC for 30 minutes. Probably didn't go nearly far enough, but again- I had no idea how far I'd gone because I lost my $16 sensor.

Thursday Run: Spent all day trying to work on my posture (it's terrible and I have back problems because of it). I had a chiropractic evaluation that evening and by the time I got home, my back was killing me. I didn't even get off the couch, much less run 3.1 miles.

Finally the morning of the race got here and we had a few more fails. We were supposed to be at the zoo at 7:45 am in order to have enough time to get parked and get settled for the 5k that was supposed to start at 8:15am. We didn't even leave the house until 7:30am, and we got stuck in the WORST traffic! Apparently everybody and their brother was trying to go to this thing, and 40E had the right lane in front of the exit closed. Of course... Witness the madness below.

We got there right at 8:15, and I was panicked that we would miss the race. I went ahead and pinned my bib on in the car, and then I helped Robert pin his own as we were running down the hill to the starting gate.

Luckily, nothing had started yet. In fact, nothing actually started until 8:30ish, lol! So as usual, I was panicked for no reason at all. The beginning of a race with 1000 people is ridiculous! We tried to let the faster people get ahead before we actually crossed the line to start our time, but trying to get around the people who were walking or who had strollers or who were just slow as molasses was crazy! We had to weave and dodge for at least the first 1/2 mile. We ended up running up a street, around a barrier and then back down. Next we went up another street, no barrier this time, so I'm not sure if where we turned around was right or not, but whatever. We then headed back to the starting point, but instead of that being the end, we had to CLIMB A FREAKING MOUNTAIN!!!! LOL! Ok, I'm kidding. It wasn't a mountain, but we did have to run up a significant elevation into the actual zoo. Cool to be running through the zoo; not cool to have to run vertically so late in the game. At that point, Robert ditched me. Apparently he saw the mountain and just took it head on- sprinted the whole thing to the top. (This is also the guy that went on his own training run on Wednesday and ran a 7:30 mile and completely wore out our extremely energetic little dog.) I saw the mountain and had to walk a couple times. :-/ Just a few though. I got my stride back and when I finally saw the finish line near the tiger cage, I ran harder and faster than I have in my life! It felt good to cross the finish and I ended up with a 36:30 time, averaging an 11 minute mile. I know it's not exactly the most athletic time, but my goal was 35 minutes, and with the crazy start and the unexpected hill- I'm proud of my attempt! Robert ran it in 33:09, but only because I slowed him down the first two miles. Overall we were in the 400's (out of over 1000), I was 21 out of 30 in my age category, and Robert was 12 out of 19 in his age category. I said I didn't want to come in last, so that's success in my book!

It was such a blast too! I can't wait to do it again and try to beat my time. After we finished, we realized the zoo was way too crowded, and since we're members who can go for free anytime- we left and went to cracker barrel for breakfast. Yum!

Today we took Quincy to the dog park we'd heard so much about from a friend and had such a good time! It has a pond and a great big fenced area where the puppers can just run and run and run! Everybody there had really well behaved dogs, so they all just got to run around sans leash and play and swim. We tried to teach Quince to swim, but I don't think she liked it. At one point she got overwhelmed by this little French Bulldog was picking on her, so she hid under the bench Bert and I were sitting on and just bayed and bayed and bayed! It was hysterical! I can't wait to take her back!

The Pond