I'm a 10K (not cow) woman

Technically speaking I AM a 10 cow woman, but in this case I am officially a 10K woman. This past Saturday on March 15th I ran in my very first race ever. It was The Spectrum Newspaper 10K race held in Snow Canyon. I've been running in the mornings with my good friend Brooke for the past 5 or 6 months and one morning she tells me we should sign up for this race coming up in March. I was so skeptical, very hesistant and not sure I could do it. Which is typical with a lot of people. But being the positive person that she is, she reassured me that I could do it and so I agreed. The pressure and anticipation built from there...

Brooke and I would set little goals here and there to push ourselves. To my own disbelief I was able to achieve them which gave me the extra confidence I needed in reassuring myself I could handle a "race".

Before I continue on with the race details, I need to throw in that last week was my crazy week, it was the week my kids had Spring Break, the week that Kerry was in Las Vegas, the week Kaylee and I decided to finish painting her room (pics to come later) and the same week I was preparing to cater the wedding previously mentioned. And still find time and the energy to train a little more before the race. By the time all this was said and done, I woke up Saturday morning feel nauseated. It was time to run this race I had worked towards and I was making myself sick over the situation. Kerry just reassured me that I needed breakfast and that everything would be okay. Which I was.

Shortly after, we left for the race and arrived where the buses were loading to take us to the top of Snow Canyon. I was approached by one of the race workers and she asked if I wouldn't mind taking something to a guy named Aaron? I said, yes. And she handed me a stop watch. She said that this was the race clock and that the race couldn't start up there until he had the clock. A big deal, right? I was running in my first race ever and I held in my hands the race clock that would start the whole race. How exciting was that?

Brooke told me about the feeling that's in the air just before a race starts and she was right. There was a feeling. A feeling of anticipation and excitement. I wish I could have taken some pictures so that you could see this canyon in the early morning sun. It was so beautiful. You start to get a sense of God's power and how much he has blessed us to be on such a beautiful earth. Then you look around and see the hundreds of people all standing at the starting line and how much we all are different with our own unique life stories. And that each of us has a different pair of running shoes. Ha! You thought I was getting sentimental there for sec, didn't you? No really it was amazing.

The next thing we know everyone starts taking off over the starting line. We didn't hear a gun go off or anything. So off we go... I remember it being crowded for the first minute or so and then everyone finds there own pace and spreads out. I also remember looking ahead and seeing the long line of people lining the canyon. It was so cool! And then a negative thought comes in... "dang, I'm clear in the heck back here, man I'm slower than I thought". But that's okay, I had a good pace going and I was feeling good so I couldn't let that bring me down. I had decided early on that I wasn't going to try to run any of the uphill parts because I haven't mastered that yet. The majority of the race was downhill which I took into consideration in making my decision to run the race in the first place. I was doing pretty good up until about the mile 4 marker. I started struggling. My lungs were hurting, my stomach was very tight (similar to doing hundreds of crunches) and my heart was pounding hard. My legs felt like I couldn't lift them to take one more step. I was at a break down point. All the negative thoughts starting pouring in...the tears started welling up in my eyes. Why was I doing this, I thought. Isn't this race over yet? I can't do this anymore. I'm going to drop. Someone save me! And then there was my glimpse of hope...my friend Brooke...pushing me along and encouraging me with words like, "think of all the overweight people on the Biggest Loser and how they pushed so hard through it all...YOU CAN DO THIS!" "We have just over a mile and a half left...YOU'RE DOING SO GOOD!" How she was able to push herself through it and try to help me, I'll never know. Her positive outlook was amazing! I am so thankful she was by my side the whole way. She was a huge help to me! But here I am...coming over the finish line. YIPPEE! I did it!

There's my family cheering me on (bottom left corner) and Brooke (orange). She came in several seconds earlier and was able to turn around and cheer me on. I had set a goal to finish in an hour and a half and my finishing time ended up being 1 hr. 14 mins. So in the end I did pretty good for a first timer.

These are our pics at the finish line. We also ran the race with two of our other friends, Kris and Jen. They are a little more speedier than us and finished the race in 48 mins. It sure was nice to have them cheer us on as we came in. Oh, and here's a picture of our crappy t-shirts we got from the race. Who wears a red dirt shirt with a lizard on it? NOT ME! I was a little (okay, extremely) disappointed.

Well with all this said and done...I believe I'm ready to do another RACE!