My New Favorite Race?

Good Monday Everyone! I have a lot of thoughts, ideas, epiphanies, questions swirling in my mind right now, so I'm going to try to take this week to write some of them down. But today I'm going to start off with my new accomplishment over the weekend. On Saturday our team met up and drove to the Ft. Worth Zoo for our run. It was dark and early-- but I got to have a jelly doughnut, so I didn't mind being up for that :) It was a bit chilly, but still close to 60 degrees by this time. We found parking pretty easily and waited around for awhile before the aerobic exercise began. Up to that point, we planned on just watching everyone else, but Courtney, Amy, and I decided to join. We did some jogging in place, toe touches, knee stretches, and jumping jacks to get our heart rates going and loosen up our muscles. They said it would actually help our performance in the race and I think it did. Want to see our new moves? I also got a picture with my awesome new race bag! We weren't exactly thrilled that this is what they dubbed our 'race bags' for the weekend. But life goes on. We started lining up for the race around 6:50 am. Most of our team was able to make it, even though it had rained most of the night and called for continual showers through the day.

Southwestern Squirrels

It was actually super-great weather for a race: in the low 60s and cloudy. I wore a sleeveless running shirt with my running capris and shorts and I was very comfortable throughout the race. We got started and several of us stayed together through the zoo. Sadly, the only (part of an) animal I saw was some alligator legs. And I'm not even 100% sure that's what it was. Running through the zoo is MUCH different than strolling through...

Around mile 2 we started running some hills... and boy, did they continue throughout the race! I was suprised by the amount of hills there were. Now I'm not saying they were all steep and long, but after a certain point, any incline seems more like a mountain than a speed bump. Throughout the race, I was feeling good. My heart never felt like it was going to pound out of my chest, my legs felt strong, and I was truly able to enjoy myself! I talked to a couple of people throughout the race, but thoroughly enjoyed just being outside on a cool morning enjoying the scenery around me. Once I hit mile 5 it began to sprinkle, but at this point it felt awesome! I was starting to get pretty warm, so it came at really the perfect time. It wasn't a hard rain at all, just a nice light shower. I kept checking my watch at each mile marker and could tell I was going to meet my goal, so I kept pushing myself in hopes of truly smashing it!
Here's the clip of me finishing the race:
I was able to push a little harder at the end and pass the lady in the black. We had been pretty close throughout the race. I had passed her at one point early on, then she went around me just before mile six, then I was able to pass her at the finish! She told me afterwards that she paced off of me-- I was excited to hear that! It made me feel like I'm truly becoming a runner. I was noticing the other people around me during the race and I was able to stay up with the "skinny" runners. It made me happy because I know I'll never see myself this way, but knowing that I'm keeping pace with them makes me feel like I'm really reaching my goals!!

The race went really awesome and my offical time was 63'07"- a new personal best! My pace is improving greatly because I was able to put out 10'10" miles! I was pleased with my time because that means I beat last year's time by over 5 minutes. I had a really great time and am learning more and more that I enjoying running. It has been especially helpful to have such a sweet and encouraging running buddy. I can't believe she is moving on May 7th-- so soon :-(

I am really going to miss her!

I think this may be my new favorite race. I enjoyed the half marathon, but this length, 6.2 miles, just felt really good. It could also be that on a lot of my long runs I run for about an hour, so my body is pretty used to it. But who knows? I had a great time and am looking forward to my next race on Labor Day! To life... full of hills to conquer and hugs of goodbye.