Spring Thaw!

I did it!!! I completed my first 5K!! I mostly walked but jogged a little now and then. I finished the race in 46:00! I did the race with a few friends; Jodi, Melissa, and Sara. There were a lot more people there that I knew, too. Jodi finished in, I think, 27:33 and Melissa was after her. Sara and I walked and jogged together. Sara really kept me going! I was worried that I held her back but I'm glad I had her because she kept me going. She had me jogging when I didn't really want to and had me walking faster than I would have if I would have been alone. At the last little bit of the race she went off ahead of me and I went on alone. It didn't bother me at all. Then just around the corner from the finish line was Jodi and Melissa cheering along the sidelines. Jodi ran the last little bit with me. She said, "Let's go! The finish line is just around the corner!" Then when the time clock was in sight she said, "Let's get to the finish line before 46:00!" We had about 30 seconds to go and that was all that was on my mind. I didn't even notice all the people on the sidelines watching me run. I crossed the finish line and Jodi gave me a high five. I was so proud of myself! The girls and I got a banana and hung out for a little bit. They all left and I decided that I wanted to hang around a little bit. I watched some of the 10 mile runners cross the finish line and watched a girl I know cross the line. I hung out and walked around for about an hour and all I could think about is, "I want to be apart of this crowd. I want to be a runner!" I listened to the experienced runners talk about their "PR's" and their "Pace's." I wanted to talk about my PR and Pace times. I'll tell you all... since this was my first race, I have a new PR (runner talk for Personal Record.) My PR is 46:00! The pace time they had for me on the sheet that was hung up with everyones' times said my pace time was 14:59! Pace time is how fast I did each mile. I think most runners have a pace time of anywhere from 6-9 min. I decided that I'm going to do the Royal Run 5K walk/run in June. I'm going to try and get a new PR. :) If I work at it, I think I can get my pace down to 14:00 by then. Yes, I am HOOKED!

Here are the four of us after the race. Me, Jodi, Sara, and Melissa. We had so much fun! I can't wait to do another! After the race, I came home to a wonderful sight! My new stroller!! I was so excited, I ripped the box open and started putting it together right away. Jeremy had to help fix the brakes and make sure they were all set up right. I'm not sure what people that don't have a "Jeremy" to do those things do. :) I then loaded up the girls in the stroller, Brayden on his bike and Zoey, our rat terrior, on the leash and off we went. I wasn't sure how everything would go, because Zoey isn't really used to a leash, but I had her walking pretty well right next to the stroller. It worked out great! We used it again on Sunday out at my mom's. We were outside most of the afternoon and having the stroller for the girls to sit in worked out great!
I mapped out my walking route around town on www.runningmap.com. I made the route I take around Danbury fit into 3.1 miles or 5K. That way I can take that route and work on the time it takes me to finish it. For some reason, I'm still not too comfortable with the idea of running in town where people can see me. I don't know why because I ran at the race on Saturday where there were tons of people watching. I guess I knew they didn't know me and probably didn't think about it much past the time of seeing me. If I run in town, I know when I see people later they'll probably say, "I saw you running. ...blah, blah, blah." or at coffee, they'll tell all the other coffee drinkers, "I saw Megan running around town." LOL! I guess it's not that big of a deal but I don't like to be the topic of conversation and I don't want to be a "show" for anyone.

One thing I want to try, if I can, is rollerblading with the stroller. The stroller has a hand brake so I think that I would be OK if I tried it. I might have to wait a little bit to get the courage to try that but I think it would be fun. The biggest thing would be getting down the driveway to the street! The little incline of my driveway would send me shooting with the stroller into the street and I'd probably end up on the ground in our neighbors yard! HAHA!

I have got to get back to eating better! I'm about half way involved in eating good. I eat junk but then I'll have a salad. Yesterday I made myself a little malt but made some good chicken with black beans and rice for supper. Actually, I'm only about half way involved in exercising, too. I haven't been to the gym in quite awhile. I think that I'll go out because it's pretty nice out but then I don't get to it. I've gained a little weight back, too. If I want to reach my goals, I'm going to have to step it up!

The Dr. Phil show is having a "FAT debate" today. I think I'm going to watch.

Goal for today: Get some exercise in; video, walk/jog, or gym. JUST DO IT! :)