Women's walk/run 5K

Women's Walk/RUN Graduation 5K

 

The crew...Ashley, Ashlee, Me, and Emily

 

 

For the past several Monday nights several hundred ladies from all around the Memphis area have met at Shelby Farms to train.  Ranging from walkers to advanced runners.  All have worked hard, sweat, hurt, but most importantly persevered! Training can be gruesome at times but to get better you have to continue and work through the pain and your mind telling you to quit. 

 

All these ladies have done just that! 

 

Today was our Graduation 5k.  It was so much fun and I'm so happy to have run with such an awesome group of women who are focused on their health and being the best they can be. 

 

I picked up the girls you see in the pictures around 6:40 and we headed to the race.  I was so nervous, not sure why exactly but I was.  I think because I wanted to do my absolute best and beat last weeks 5k time of 27:19.  My goal was to be in the 26s. 

 

I made the rookie mistake of taking off way too fast.  However, I looked at it like, oh well, I've committed now and I'm not backing down!!! I was feeling it by mile 2 but at that point I was almost done and could practically see the finish line.  I ran most of the race with a girl I met in the program named Dana.  She had inched in front of me around mile 2.5 but I was going to try my best to catch back up.  We rounded the corner heading for the finish and the race was on.  We were neck and neck and I was not backing down. I'm happy to say I finished slightly ahead of her...by 1 second!

 

 

My self portrait right after I finished!

 

 

I turned in my time card, grabbed a smoothie, and headed to the finish line to see my friends finish. 

 

I am SO PROUD OF THESE GIRLS!!! They have been working their butts off and did awesome!

 

Here are some pics I took of them finishing!

 

 

Emily coming into the finish...GO EMILY!!!!!

 

Here comes Ashley, 3rd one shown, and my friend Amy, 4th one shown!

 

Talk about an adrenaline rush.  There is nothing like the high you get from finishing a race. It's awesome!

 

We stretched and chatted while waiting on the awards ceremony.  At this point I had no idea of my time or place.  I completely forgot to stop both my watch and my phone app.  I thought I was in the 26s and was thrilled with that time. However, that was my goal for this race. 

 

As you can imagine I was ecstatic when they announced that I was 2nd in my age group with a time of 25:49!!!!!!!!! YIPEEEEEE!!!! Pure elation!!! I have trained and worked my butt off for this and just feel so blessed!!!!!

 

My splits were...

 

Mile 1 - 8:10

Mile 2 - 8:15

Mile 3 - 8:16

 

Here are some post race pics...

 

 

Ashley, Ashlee, Emily, & Me showing our really cute pink sparkly metals!

 

 

 

Smiling for the photographer after getting my 2nd place award!!!

 

 

So happy!!!

 

 

So, that sums up the race - and what a great race it was!!!

 

 

Now, I need to go pack for the beach!!! We leave in the morning!!

 

 

 

**Here are some borrowed race pics from the race site**

 

 

So HAPPY!!!

 

Just before I made my big move and passed Dana - I was working hard!

 

My award

 

Ha! We look like a stuck up angry group of runners!