14 Days Til The Marathon

Once school was finally out, and I could run whenever I wanted, I decided it was time to sign up for some races. I chose 2 totally random ones to sign up for.

1. Jim Hauser Race For Sarcoma 5K in Greenville- I chose this one because of an invite from a great family at my church; The Payne's. Their son Andrew runs cross country for Dorman and he was running in this. Allison, the mom, had been a big encourager for me that day at our church race, and she thought that I would enjoy running. I even talked Matt into running it with me. It was a great race. I felt really good about it as I ran. We stayed for the award ceremony because we were pretty sure Andrew won his age group, and mush to my surprise, I place 2nd in my division. I WAS SHOCKED! Just months ago I started this whole thing, and here I was winning something... My time was 21:48. That is 6.9 minute mile... Way better than my 10-11 minute mile at the beginning of March, and this was July.

This is the group of winners. I lost to the guy on the far left in the blue shorts. It felt good to lose to someone who looked like a "real" runner.

2. Back To School 5k in Duncan. I signed up for this one on my own. Don't have any pictures of it but I sure wish I did. This one was a month later, and I was more conditioned. My time improved to 21:16...6:51 minute mile. I was ecstatic as I crossed the finish line and saw that time. We hung around for the award ceremony, and low and behold... I WON my age division. I was shocked! I had never been so proud to receive a prize as I was that coffee mug that they presented to the winners.... I wonder where that thing is???