running in a 5k

Dan and I ran in a 5k on Wednesday evening. It was my first. I'm not sure about Dan. He might have done something crazy like this in college before he met me. This 5k was a family "fun" run/walk/bike event. No registration fees. No white paper with a number on it safety pinned to your shirt. Dan's not convinced that it was actually 5k either. That's ok though. I was just there to see what the "fun" was going to be.

Turns out, the only part that I would consider "fun" was crossing the finish line and stopping. Watching Dan and our friend (in the red shirt up there) do some warm up stretches before the whole thing started was a little bit fun too.



See how Dan's all smiles before the race started? It didn't take long for those smiles to fade. I can't blame him though. He was running for fun while pushing 69 pounds of kid in the stroller. I tried to take my turn pushing but he shooed me off. So I ran ahead of them and that was that.


I quickly discovered that running for fun is quite boring. I prefer to watch the tv at the gym when I exercise. All this running with nothing to look at but my feet and the backs of the people in front of me. Fun. Fun. Fun. So I took pictures to pass the time.

Here's a picture of my legs and the road.


I think I heard someone say that when we turned the corner it would be half way. I'm not sure how accurate that was but here's where we turned the corner. It was a lovely sunset.


This is where my shoulder started hurting. It was the arm that was holding my camera so that's probably why. It has nothing to do with being out of shape I'm sure.


I saw some horses.


And some horse poop. There's a guy and a little kid up at the top of the picture. That little kid was on a bike and he kept swerving over the yellow lines, even though his dad was jogging next to him. I sped up and passed them because there was no way I was going to let a kid on a bike beat me.


I took this picture over my shoulder. If you look really closely you might be able to see the rest of my family eating my dust.


This picture is for my dad. That's Mt. Timpanogos.


When I was getting close to the finish line, some people started cheering. It made me feel good until I realized that they were cheering for the girl who was right behind me. See? Fun!

A few feet away from the finish, that same girl sped up and took a big step so she could beat me! The nerve. Then she laughed and said, "Just kidding!" Fun!

I obviously have never run in any kind of race before. Here's how I know (other than the fact that I remember everything and I know I've never run in a race before). As I crossed the finish line, I heard a guy say "31, 35." I thought he was telling me that I had finished 31st in the race. I wasn't sure what the 35 meant. Maybe that the other girl had finished 35th. That didn't make sense though since there weren't 4 people between us. I'm not too bright. I realize that now.



I headed back out to the curb so I could see Dan and the kids when they crossed the line too. That's when I saw that Danny had taken off is shirt during the run. Lovely. Dan's a trooper! I'm proud of him for finishing. His time was 33:46. Guess what mine was. Yep. 31:35. I was thinking that was pretty good until Dan told me that he walked a lot of the way. And he was pushing 69 pounds of kid. I've left myself lots of room for improvement though.

Actually training for this "fun" run might have helped too. I'm not sure running 20 times around the track a week before the event really counts as training. Oh well. Since the only prize I could see was spending quality time on a run/walk/bike with your family, I'd say I put in just the right amount of training.


See how fun it was? I'm smiling! And that girl behind me with the blue shorts is the one who tried to beat me.


Look out, St. George marathon!

Here I come!