Birthday Weekend

I had a good weekend.  It went by fast but it was lots of fun.  On Saturday I got up and went to the gym while Brandon stayed home with the kids before he had to go to work.  I started some High Intensity Interval Training.  I  only did 1 minute at 9mph, 2 minutes at 5, 3 times.  After the gym I had to go to work for a couple hours.  Once I got home from work I cleaned up the house, did some laundry, and started packing.  My goal was to leave JC around 2 so we could get to KC around 4 so I could go to Legends and go to the Nike outlet to buy some running stuff with the birthday money that was burning a hole in my pocket.  Something in the back of my head said to wait until the laundry was done in the dryer before we left.  So I waited around packed our bags for Kansas City, and loaded up the car.  At about 3 the laundry was all done the car was loaded I was ready to go.  Brandon called and said "Have you left yet?"  To which I responded "Nope. I wanted to finish the laundry, and clean up the house."  He said "Good you might want to wait a couple more hours because there was a horrible accident on I-70 right outside Topeka that has traffic completely stopped."  His boss was driving to Manhattan and watched the accident happen.  She was in shock, it was accident that claimed the life of a mother and 2 of her young children.  I am so thankful for the thought in the back of my head that told me to wait.  Had I not waited we would have been there right as the accident happened.  It is amazing how God works.

So we didn't leave for KC until 5:30.  We got  there around 7:30 the in-laws were out and they had made spaghetti for me.  The kids and I gobbled up some and went to bed.  We were asleep by 9 at the latest.  Sunday morning we I woke up at 6:30 and started getting ready for Race Day!!  I went through my normal race day routine.  Did some stretching and at 7:30 we hit the road.  The Race sight was half an hour away from my in-laws house and I am blessed with such a wonderful Mother In Law she came with me to watch the kids and watch me run.  We get to the parking lot where we park the car and got on a shuttle to shuttle us across the street to the "Caves."  Once we got to the Caves the jitters had hit strong.  This place was PACKED!!  They are man made caves.  It is climate controlled storage units.  Where you can park you car, boat, RV...etc.  I get the race day packet and put my number on.  This is the 1st race I've run that has used chip timing.  I ran the Half Marathon with Chip timing but they had the chips on the back of your number.  I had the chip in my hand and knew that it had to go on my shoe.  Finally after trying for what seemed like hours, I asked this sweet lady who did it for me.

Finally it was time to line up.  I told my Mother in law that my goal was to finish around 25 minutes.  I made my way to the start line.  The line was long.  This was the biggest race I'd ever participated in.  The have 3500  spaces open for 2 races.  The race sold out.  I'm standing there with about 10 minutes left and doing some stretching.  A guy next to me asks how many times I've ran this before and I said this is my first time.  He said "well it's completely flat."  I grinned and said "Great so I should win because I train on hills."  Our conversation went on he ran this race many time before.  We wish each other good luck and the gun fires.

The start of a packed race is like a one car accident on the interstate.  No one is injured but everyone stops and slow down to look.  With it being underground my phone didn't have signal so the mapmyrun app didn't work.  Which may or may not have been a blessing.  I didn't know how fast or slow I was running.  I know my feel good pace, but I like having the reassurance that I'm running at that pace.  At mile 1 I felt amazing.  At mile 2 I felt better than I did at mile 1.  I kept pushing myself, kept running past people.  At mile 3 I couldn't believe that the race was almost over.  I kick it in come around the corner and see the finish line.  The clock on the finish line reads 25:00.  My heart sinks, my  goal was to be under 25 on my 27th birthday.

I followed a group of runners to a table with computers set up.  The guy typed in my number and gave me a little piece of paper with my actual chip timing time.  I felt the tears well up when I read 24:49.6.  Happy Birthday to me!!  I set a PR!!

Before the race

After the race

Next race 5 mile trail run on February 26th!!