One race down....

The girls and I survived the first race of the weekend! This morning we participated in the Emma Creek Classic 5K in Hesston. This is a race for women and girls only - no boys allowed! :) I'm not sure what the exact total was, but there were well over 1000 runners registered for this year.

The morning started out sunny, but cold and WINDY!! I wasn't sure we were going to be able to tolerate it at first but we had made up our minds that we were doing it so there was no turning back. The start line was a crazy mob, as it was last year, but once the race started everyone spread out and got moving. It's an easy course (after all, it is Kansas - not like we have mountains to run up) and the wind seemed to slow down a bit once we got going. I didn't see my girls once we got to the start line, not that I expected them to wait for slow ol' mom.

I managed to jog more today than I ever have, but I tried not to push myself too much knowing the torture that I'm going to put myself through tomorrow morning. By the time it was done, I was tired, but not overly tired. Now, a few hours later, I feel great!

We are home for a little bit now, getting some things done around the house, and then we are going out for ice cream (frozen yogurt, actually) and then we are going to our friends' house for supper, and then I'm depositing the older 4 kids with their fathers before I spend the night with my youngest at our friends' place. She is giving me a ride to the race tomorrow so that I don't have to worry about parking, so that will be a definite help.

Other than that, I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for tomorrow. I've never done anything like this - 7 miles is the most that I have ever done, so 13.1 seems to be a bit overwhelming to me right now. But, I am committed to doing this. I said I was going to, and I'm going to do it. I might want to have my head examined, but I'm going to do it. Originally my goal was to do it within 3 1/2 hours - at this point, I'm just hoping to finish.

If a 93 year old lady with a walker can finish a 5K, I can finish a half-marathon.

Stayed tuned for an update tomorrow afternoon!!!