9K and back on track

I am proud to say that I ran and FINISHED my first 9K EVER correction: my first running event EVER!

My cousin, Barb signed up for the Race for Maggies Place and encouraged me to run with her. Maggies Place is a foundation that helps women who may have had a drug past, abuse, financial hardship or just needs a safe place to live during their pregnancy and birth of their child.

Considering the fact I have not been keeping to my running schedule and last week I skipped out on the cross training day, I was very apprehensive about being able to keep up with my cousin and finishing the run in general.

The motivation from everyone starting, running and moving all for a cause we great in itself, but I think the biggest motivator was Barb pushing her son in his jogger the entire 9K. From smooth surfaces to trails and hills, Barb pushed that jogger the entire time.. So stopping and slowing down the pace was out of the question.. every time I thought I needed a break, I just looked over at Barb and made my mind tell me damn she's pushing at least 40lbs- get with it girl, you have it easy and you can do this!
This is not to say I struggled with my mind throughout the race and the hardest part was when we were near the finish and I saw the balloons in the arch just like a finish line should look like only to find out when we got up to it we still had a half mile left to go. Those balloons were a finish line alright, but for the dog race event that was stationed right before our finish line.. I had to literally talk out loud to tell myself I could go for another .5 of a mile.

We finally went through the bigger black finish arch where Barb and I crossed the line at 58:48 mins. Averaging a 10.30 mile, that is at least 1-2 minutes less than I normally run and will be my first PR!

After the race we hung out with Barbs friends and I had a really great experience and am looking forward to more runs! (I never thought I would ever say that in my life).

Today, I met my friend Denise for a run at 8am. She lives exactly 1 mile away so I thought I would get a head start and run to her. Denise is just starting out with the training and is still in the run/walk stage which is totally great!

We did a route that Denise used to walk before so she lead the way, we ran and walked for 5.5 miles which took us roughly 1:45mins. Then once we were finished I ran back from her house- so I put in 2 extra miles for a total of  7.5 miles. Hopefully this is the beginning of getting back on track!

Tonight I am resting on the couch trying to avoid any movement because my muscles feel like its is training week  number1 all over again and I can hardly hobble around. Cant wait for tomorrow as I know its going to get worse before it gets better- But its a good pain reminding me that yes I have worked out and I am doing a good thing right?

Now if I could only drop a pound- Life would be awesome!