No Really....This Is My Life: 15 mintues, 5 years & 5K -

Ok so here it is. The scoop on my first 5K. Where do I begin?
My first 5K was the Jean Jones Walk/Run for Cancer. I felt good about this being my first run. Jean Jones passed away the year before I came to Ole Miss. She was a counselor there and had an impact on so many her legacy still lives on at the University. I love the cause, I love the University and I love Oxford. So why not?
As you may know Whitney has been training me to run by doing the couch to 5K. We started back in January and ran rain, snow, wind, no matter what. I was dedicated. Running was something I've wanted to do for a long time....years, but it took Whit to get me off the couch to fulfill this bucket list wish of mine. Here are a few pictures pre-race.

Whitney and Tanner

My biggest fans

pre-run family photo

I saw a few Oxford people I knew. One of them being my dear friend / mentor, Whitman Smith. Whitman was over the Ole Miss Orientation Leaders and has now worked his way up to being the director of enrollment services for the University. He's a phenominal guy that has an impact on most everyone he meets. I was glad to introduce him to my son and catch up and meet some of our great schools new ambassadors he was there with. It was hard to believe, and made me feel REALLY old, but it has been 11 years since I was an Orientation Leader. Neither of us could believe it.

Ok so race time. There were some pretty die hard looking racers there. They had the racer garb on and some of it was a little extreme if I do say so myself. I hate I didn't get pictures of some of them. Anyway, I digress. The race began. Whitney ran with me the whole time. She could have gotten first place but she was dedicated to stick with me and Lord knows how much I appreciate it. I know I wouldn't have made it without her support. I had mentally planned out landmarks to where I'd run to and where I'd walk. Ummm, that fell by the wayside rapidly. I have to admit it slowed down my mental motivation more than I expected. Here we are making the loop and our cheering section cheering us on.

me in pink and Whitney in sunglasses

I found these pictures on the camera. This must have been what the boys did while we ran...

Tanner discussing deep thoughts to is daddy in the Grove

Hill climbing out of the wagon and being MIA for a minute only to be spotted heading towards the bouncy house

Ok, so back to the race. I walked a lot more than I planned. Whitney was supportive and would try to help me set landmark goals. I wasn't able to meet them and it continued to discourage me. It was also NOT fun having the police car that escorts the LAST runner behind me the whole time. I felt like I was holding him up and I just knew I couldn't push any harder. The first half mile Whitney said we ran in 6 minutes. This was record for me because I run a 14 minute mile and this would have been an 11 minute mile at that pace. I started off too fast. With the cop behind me and racers ahead of me I guess I got caught up, which lead to even more rapid exhaustion. There was no blood, there was lots of sweat and definitely internal tears throughout this run. I'm not sure I've ever been so hot in my entire life. I lived on the equator for a year, I have slept in muggy jungles, I grew up in Texas the most humid place on earth, but the heat did not compare to that day.

At one point there was a split. The walkers took a right and the runners took a left only to meet back up at a cross roads a mile later. Had Whit not been with me I'd have totally gone with the walkers and done only 2 miles...but I pushed on. There was a water station that I really just wanted to sit on the ground and have them pour water over my head for like 5 minutes, but I didn't do that because the cop behind me wouldn't have appreciated that. I think him being there put a lot of pressure on me. All the time Whitney being my rock and talking me through this. She could tell I was discouraged and would remind me how well I was doing. She'd call my time which was still better than my goal I set, so that was a positive. Yet, I knew mentally I was still in a funk at how much I had walked than run. The 'invisible hills' as I like to call them were treacherous in Oxford.
We came to the cross roads where the walkers meet back up with the runners. I had to laugh because through my heavy breathing I told Whitney, "are you kidding me? I'm bringing in the walkers?" I looked ahead and saw the police car behind the walkers about to meet the police car that was behind me. I'm the caboose. I was prepared to be the last runner, but I don't think I was prepared to be the last runner coming in with the last walker. So I pushed a little harder and passed all the people that were mosey-ing around. I think Hill and his 2 inch legs walked faster than those people.

I proceeded to pass the people walking their dogs...you know the dogs that stop to smell every blade of grass and tt on it. Yup, I was back there with those guys. Once I passed them and passed a few groups of walkers I felt a little better. I finally came to a civilization where walkers were cheering Whitney and I on and telling us that "we can do it." This was the last leg (mostly downhill) before we encountered these folks. Where were they a mile and a half back? I sure could have used them then. Whit had me look up and I could see the balloons at the finish line. The goal was in sight. I pushed so so hard.

I debated whether to post this picture or not but I felt it summed up my race. I will call this picture "The Struggle" I was almost to the finish line, I could see it, I was pushing, I am fat, I was running, it was an up hill battle, I'm fulfilling my bucket list wish that almost made me kick the bucket in the process.

There were 127 runners.

61 were female.

17 were in my age group.

None of that matters to me.

I did it...I ran a 5K.

According to the results I ran a 5K in

42 minutes and 15 seconds.

That is not a great time, but it's 3 minutes better than my goal of finishing in 45 minutes. It's what I'd been doing during my training - a 14 minute mile.

I was the last runner, but I'm ok with that because at least I was a runner.