The 5k, Willie, and a new pair of jeans!

My friend Wendy ran a marathon this weekend and after running a 5K, I truly believe she is a super hero! Her pictures of the finish line made me cry. I'm so proud of you Wendy! Be sure to read her story when you can.

I am sure you are all on the edge of your seat wondering how the 5K went? If not, just lie and say you are! Well, it went pretty good. My time would not be considered an excellent time but for someone who is not a very good distance runner, it was great. 30:58. I'm happy with that because I beat the time I was running during training.

3.2 miles is not all that much for some but getting back into the groove of running after having three babies in four years is difficult. When I was single and running, I was in my younger twenties. Now I am thirty one and three babies has changed my body quite a bit!

Mentally, my race was not all that great. For some reason I was very emotional. There was something really cool about standing at the start line surrounded by people in our community. When the horn blew, I had tears in my eyes. Also, my friendship with Heidi has grown so much during those nights of running. We have laughed, peed our pants and shared a lot of cool things about what God is doing in our life. We've pushed each other and sometimes prayed out loud while running. We've quoted scripture and truly connected on a very deep level. During the run I saw of few of my friends, Kyle, Sabrina, Brandon and Cindy and at the end I saw Jeremy. (After reading Wendy's marathon story, I feel silly writing about a 5K :) )Hearing my friends scream my name when I passed their street, caused a few tears. And it was nice having them there because the iPod was annoying me so I threw it to my friend Brandon as he stood on the side of the street cheering. Hey,what are friends for? And I got my iPod back this morning!

The morning was cool and Heidi and I had not run in cool weather. Texas is FINALLY getting cool air! It was not freezing by any means but it was cool and that seem to effect (or is it affect??) me a little. Halfway I realized there were a ton of people in front of us and Heidi and I made a deal that we would stick together. Heidi had an awesome day! She could have run circles around me but she didn't. I kept telling her, "GO! I will be fine." But she insisted on staying with me. I never walked, I kept a pretty good pace but Heidi would say things like, "Amanda, you have had three kids natural. You can do this! You are a tough, strong woman and you can speed up. Push yourself." (Just so you know when Heidi says natural, she means the old fashion way. I had pain medication!! Okay? Not NATURAL, just natural.) Bless Heidi's heart, her words did not make me speed up any. I was struggling a lot. I am not sure how other runners feel but running does not FEEL good, it hurts. But, when you are done, you feel INCREDIBLE! That is why I keep running!

Now for confession time. I found myself looking at some of the runners when I first arrived (before the race started) and thinking that I could probably out run 'em! Some people did not look like runners. Well, that was a big mistake! I saw this one guy that looked about seventy five years old. He had a breathe right strip on his nose and looked like he would probably come in last place. Well, guess who was in front of me the entire race? Willie, the seventy three year old man! I won't lie, I kept telling myself that I could not let him beat me. But, he did. It was only a few seconds but he beat me! :) And thanks to me and thanks to Heidi being such a committed, loyal friend, he beat her too! Sorry Heidi!

I think we will run another 5K, maybe in December or January and then we are running a 10K in March. How on earth I will run a 10K? I don't know, but that's my goal. It's a 10K in Austin and there are hills galore but I think it's worth a try! Today I bought myself a pair of jeans and I got to purchase a size I have not worn in years. I even asked the cashier what size they were to make sure I was not imagining things! That's not to brag either. Well, maybe a little! :) I'm just proud of myself because I never stick with anything and this time I did. And because of that, I think I will stick with running. The results are so worth it! But I think Heidi and I may need to hire Willie for some training. I hope I'm running when I'm seventy three.