St Patty's March Run/Walk 5K

Early this week, on my Facebook page, there was an advertisement for the run that I did this morning.  There were a few different choices, there was going to be a 10K, 5K and a 1 mile fun run this morning.  There was also going to be free pancakes for runners and their supporters, an obstacle course and face painting for the children.  

I didn't know if I was actually going to do this run until this morning.  If I could have made up my mind by a couple of days ago, I would have saved myself $9.  Since my toddler has not been feeling very well, I had to take that into consideration.  I also took a peek at weather.com which indicated that it may be a rainy morning.  This was also taken into consideration.  I figured I should wait until today to see how the weather was, and how the baby was doing.

When I woke up, at 7:30 am, the weather was overcast, but there at been no rain.  The baby had slept well and her nose wasn't running quite as bad as it had been the past few days.  I took a step outside and it wasn't too cool.  I decided that we would do it.  This made my children happy.  They were excited for the fun run, the obstacle course, and the (green) pancake breakfast.

This was the first 5K I have done since I gave birth in October 2011.  I think the last one I did before that was Jan 1, 2011.  The fastest timed 5K I have completed was 29:58.  I was so excited that day that I had finally beat 30 minutes.  My time today was 36:20.  I came in 38th place overall and 15th in my age group.  Someday I will break that 30 minute mark again, but for now, I am happy to have finished it running.  

I started running again at the beginning of the year.  I was doing a couch to 1 mile with my sister and continue to run with her.  I started running non-stop about a month and half ago, and then decided to figure out what kind of running I need to do to be ready for a half-marathon.  This is week 3, so I had to do a 3 mile run today, so this race fit in perfectly.  

After I finished the 5K, there was about a 45 minute break before the 1 mile fun run.  My 5 year-old wanted to do the mile with my 8 year-old and my son who will be 10 tomorrow.  I didn't think that he would be able to keep up, so I decided to run that one so he wouldn't be by himself.  At the starting line, there was a 3 or 4 year-old child in front of me.  When the race started, he immediately fell down, face first.  I bent right over and picked him up and held him up face level to make sure he was okay.  He looked at me and immediately started crying, I am a stranger, of course.  By this time, a concerned parent came running over and I handed him over.  

By the time the child was returned to a parent, my children were at least a minute up the road.  I decided to run it anyway.  I never caught up with them, but I could see them the whole way.  I was very proud of them.  They all stayed pretty much together.  I finished in 11:11 and I am guessing the finished in close to 10 minutes.  Now, I just need to keep them running.  I was amazed that my 5 year-old did so well.  After the race, he said to me, "See Mommy, I told you I was super fast."  I smiled and told him that he is really fast.