HWYW 5K

The Saturday before school started, our ward's Young Women put together and ran in a 5K.  Two other wards joined in and we had a great time.  Our fearless leader set it all up and did a great job.  We had been training all summer for this and it felt awesome to finally complete it.  My training was lacking the couple weeks before we ran but I finished in 56 mins.  Not a great time to most but I was pretty proud of myself for finishing in under an hour.  It just gave me a push to try harder and finish faster on the next race.  I'm looking forward to next year.

Here is the back of the pack as we started out.  It was around 6AM and the sun hadn't even come up yet.  We started at Colt and Foothill and ran down to Magic.  Then Magic over to Newport.  Newport down to Milan and Milan over to Burkholder and onward to the church building.  I felt really good starting out and ran almost all of the first mile.  It was a run/walk for the rest.

There's the whole group that ran.  Some of the leaders' kids ran and one certain boy was my finishing buddy and I sure was grateful he stuck with me and encouraged me to the end.

Here's me with all of our Young Women leaders who ran.  We each decorated our own shirts.  Off behind me you can see my kiddos in the background.  Ben surprised me and got the kids out of bed and came to cheer me on.  They were first waiting along Magic where I was feeling my lowest.  It was a slight uphill and I was in the back, last by myself.  Then I looked up and noticed a little group cheering and realized it was my family.  You would not believe the lift I received as I continued to run to them.  Then they drove to the finish line and cheered me again.  They were all so proud of me and I loved having them there supporting me.  My muscles are still achy but my spirit is dying to run some more.  Hopefully with the kids back in school, I can get back out there and improve on that time.