Saturday, July 4, 2009

Firecracker 5K Race Report

I was sweating by 6:15am. It was THAT hot 'n humid today. I was on this race committee and had registration duty which is the only reason I was there so early. Cindy was there with her 3 month old daughter, Emily Grace so what I REALLY did was hold the baby until she fell asleep, then I handed out t-shirts. Ha!! Grandma practice!!!













Kim and Kayla at the Firecracker 5K!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kayla came in with her husband Josh around 7am and I could tell she was a little nervous/excited. We wore gray tops and black shorts so we could match (it's a girl thing). Deb showed up soaked and out of breath. Seems she decided to "warm up" with a 6 mile bike ride to the race. Gotta love Deb....LOL...and I do!!! Steph and Elizabeth came soon after. All of us were excited for Kayla's 1st race!

We were NOT excited about the heat and humidity. We usually run at 6:30am and yeah, it's still hot but even an hour later it gets BRUTAL. I could only hope some people had their sprinklers on to run through!


One really cool thing that happened...when the national anthem was being sung, someone from the front started singing along. One by one everyone joined in. It was such a touching moment. It gave us pause to think about our men and women over in Iraq. Hopefully they stay safe and come home to their families soon.


The horn went off and away we went. Starting off already hot and sweaty was making us feel like it might be a tough run. It was. We did the "hop-around-the-kids" dance and got through that without a fall. I love seeing the kids there but they tend to run in a zig-zag pattern...haha! We made it to the first mile in 9:15, very nice. I looked over at Kayla and she was going strong! We got to the half way turning point where our friend Ed was monitoring and he gave us the lucky high 5. We made the turn in just over 14 minutes. I was PUMPED! Kayla's goal was to come in under 30 minutes and I sooo wanted to see her make that time.

By the time we got to the 2 mile marker the sun was just beating down on us. Sweat was pouring off all of us. We slowed a bit about here. Kayla wanted to go without a walk break but with the elements being what they were I pulled a coach card and called a 20 second walk. I pointed out that the crowd wasn't really getting very far ahead of us. Everyone was slowing down.

After a quick (silent) evaluation of any health issues (like heat exhaustion) we started back up. We caught up to the crowd we were basically with when we took the shorty walk break. When we saw the 3 mile marker we kicked it up a notch. It looked like a close one to come in under 30 minutes. When we saw the finish line we booked it in to the sounds of Michelle (Kayla's sister) and Josh screaming for Kayla!!!! It was so exciting!!! We made it in in 30:02! Soaked with sweat and looking for water.

I was worried Kayla would be disappointed we missed it by 3 seconds but she was thrilled! I reminded her we actually took at least 7 seconds to get to the starting line, so in REALITY we did finish in 29:54. Josh and Steph agreed. These are the times I wish we had chips. Anyway, Kayla wanted to take off before the parade got started but I talked her into waiting for awards. What she didn't know was I have CONNECTIONS and found out she PLACED IN HER AGE GROUP and had a medal coming to her! And the really cool thing was...my friend Kimmi and I were the award announcers and I was going to be able to call her name! OMG...can I even get my feelings across in this blog???? No, I cannot.

At the women's age 25-29...2nd place in her age group...KAYLA!!! I had tears, I swear! My voice even cracked a little. I am so very HAPPY!!! After all the awards went out I ran over for big sweaty hugs!! She is so thrilled! Kayla had a surprise for me! She gave me a gift certificate for a massage!!! How sweet is that?!? I am looking forward to that, I'll tell ya!

Today was a satisfying finish to a wonderful training with Kayla. We trained hard together, running at the crack of dawn. In the rain. In the heat. Even swimming through the humidity. We had fun, we ached and sweated, we planned for this day with excitement. Our friendship built strong and quickly over such a short period of time. Kayla leaves for Japan next week and I will miss her terribly. She is sweet, fun, intelligent and so full of life! I predict many more medals coming her way. I am genuinely blessed to have her for a friend.

Friday, July 3, 2009

I Think I'm Back Now...

It's been a very busy few months here in my world. My husband had his lumbar fusion. He was home for 6 weeks and just went back to work! He's feeling great and has no pain after 25 years of back problems. Very happy about that!

My daughter, Kirstin is having a baby!! Very soon, in fact. She saw the doc last Tuesday and she's 2 centimeters! (I cried) I can't believe we're going to be grandparents!!! His name is Collin Mitchell and I love him already.

I cut down on my work hours to spend the summer with my 2 youngest kids. They usually go to day camp for the summers but I see them growing up so fast that we decided to take this summer to spend together. It's not as fun/easy as I thought it would be (LOL) but I'm still happy to be able to spend this time with them.

I am still having problems with my legs etc. I'm about to begin a gluten-free diet. I also have 2 days worth of testing up in Tampa coming up which includes the dreaded spinal tap. I hope to have some concrete answers some time in this century.

I have been running with my friend Kayla 3 times a week, legs permitting. She has been a God-send because she keeps me going. Kayla leaves for Japan with her Marine husband next week and I will miss her so much!

We've been training for Kayla's very first 5K race! How exciting is THAT?? She had a goal of completing it in under 30 minutes and guess what? We ran a test 5k at race pace and she came in at 29:25!!!! I'm sooo proud of her!!! I honestly believe she will finish in 27:30. We do long runs every Saturday and have gotten up to 5 miles. I think Kayla is going to be a distance runner. She has all the signs and symptoms of loving the distance runs....lol. Before she leaves on Friday we plan to get a 10K run in. Maybe a little farther, we'll see. Kayla hopes to find some runner friends on base. I know she will, she's a sweetie!!!

We ran an easy 4 miles yesterday. Kayla doesn't usually talk when we run but this time we chatted the entire time. We finished the 4 miles without stopping and we both felt like we could have gone on forever. Proof this girl is a distance chick! She's fired up!!!!!! Mee toooo!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is "race day"...4th Of July 5K. I can't wait to see how Kayla feels about racing. I'm betting she's gonna LOVE it!!! I am also looking forward to seeing my fellow Zoomers Running Group. http://www.zoomersrun.com/ in case you're curious! I haven't seen some of them in a while.

I will be posting a race report tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll have some pictures too!!
I miss my blogging friends! Hopefully I still have some! =)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo