TOTALLY ROCKED THE 5K!!

Well today was my Get in Gear 5K.  I am so proud of myself and all of the girls that were there with me.  We are all had a great time, yes, even in the rain!!  Tiffany and I planned to stick together since we are so close to the same pace and I think that worked wonders for both of us!  We got in to a really good pace and we held that pace really well for the most part.  Right around the 1 mile mark Tiffany said to me "I think I might have to walk a block or something."  I reminded her of what Tina always tells us..."You can slow down, but you can NOT walk!"  The whole way along I was check in on her and pushing her to keep going and I think part of that was because I knew the longest she'd ran was 1.5 miles and the longest I had run in the past was 2.2 miles, so most of it was for Tiffany but part of the pep talk was for me too.  I hit a wall around 2.5 miles and really was getting very physically tired, but I knew if I walked Tiffany would walk and I wanted to prove to her that she COULD do it and I knew I could too.  So we kept going.  We worked hard to keep our breath and we watched our posture and shook out our arms when they were getting too tight.  We passed lots of people and proved a lot to OURSELVES today!  At one point we thought the start line was the finish line and we picked up the pace....unfortunately it wasn't, we still had farther to go...AND UP A HILL!  At the point where we saw the actual finish line and started sprinting for it, I pulled my quad AGAIN and had to slow down, but I finished at 39 minutes 22 seconds.  I was amazed and very proud of my ability.  When I hit the finish line and started walking around I couldn't get enough in me and was shaking like a leaf.  After 4 chocolate milks, a cup of gatorade, and a bottle of water I was feeling a little bit better, but that's when my ankle REALLY started hurting.  I felt at one point like it was going to completely give out on me, but I kept walking and moving and I survived.

We all went to lunch at Pizza Luce in Minneapolis and I was proud of the food choices as well.  The pizza looked AMAZING and everyone that was with me had pizza, but I chose to go for a large garden salad with grilled chicken and light italian dressing and it was delicious!  The pizza wasn't a huge struggle for some reason, but either way, I'm glad I had the salad.

I came home and napped (I was up at 5am, stretching, eating, and using my foam roller to work out the knots in my muscles) and immediately iced my ankle.  I've been icing it on and off all night and put my support on it, which has helped tremendously.  I have tomorrow and Monday "off" of working out, but I'll be back having my ass handed to me at boot camp on Tuesday.  I hope to atleast get a walk in tomorrow and Monday though!  I think it's a good idea to keep things moving and I'll be doing my foam roller and stretching like crazy to try to keep things "loose".

I just want to thank all of my fantastic girlfriends that were with me today!  I had a great time!  And I want Tiffany to know how incredibly proud I am of her.  It was so wonderful to have her right next to me the whole race!

Me, Tiffany, Em

The Group

My bib number (such a great one too!)

Me, Tiffany, Em, Melissa