JDRF Diabetes Run

Um, I did this a month ago, but it's better late posting than never posting, right?? I ran my first 5K! I have no idea what my time was or anything, because it wasn't really a proper 5K - there weren't any numbers you pin to your shirt or anything like that, and no one was timing us, and there were no prizes for people who got the best time in their age division or anything. I need to hop online and see if there are any other 5K's coming up. It will give me a goal to work toward.

My friend, Megann's, daughter has juvenile diabetes, and she told me about the 5K, so I joined her "team." Megann's team ended up raising $1000! I was a loser and forgot to make a shirt. I was supposed to buy a dollar store shirt and write on the back, "My friend's daughter has had diabetes for one year, six months, such-and-such days, such-and-such hours," etc. But I totally forgot to do that - sorry, Megann. :(

Anyways, the race started at Snake River Landing, a new area in town. There is this big, beautiful pier that juts out over the river, and some nice shopping centers. There will eventually be overpriced apartments there, too. (Ben checked it out, just for curiosity's sake.)

Ben came along, for support, and we obviously had to drag the kids out, but it meant so much to me for him to be there, because I was so keyed up, this being my first race of any kind in my entire life. We got there, like, an hour too early, so we hung out on the pier for awhile:

I was so hyper and nervous, so I decided to occupy myself by stretching, and Ben caught a picture of me while I was falling over:

Oh, jeez, I look really fat in that picture. Oh well.

Then they called all runners and walkers to stand behind this ribbon thingey, and I was all awkward, just standing there by myself:

So I did what I usually do when I feel awkward and don't know anybody (Megann was busy entertaining all of her many supporters) - I struck up a conversation with a complete stranger, who ended up being Megann's father-in-law. He was nice:

And then they had these little speeches by the organizers. Here I am, clapping with everyone else, with all my back fat showing:

And then we were off:

You can see me actually running in this video:

http://www.localnews8.com/Global/story.asp?S=9004654

I'm shown about six seconds into the news story, and shown for about one second, jogging, and I'm in the outfit shown above. I'm on the left side of the screen. And I look like a giant elephant, trying to run. Oh my gosh. Sickening.

So the run itself wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. I run about two miles per day, and 5K is like 3.2 miles or something, so while it was harder than normal, I didn't feel like I was dying. The sun was hot; that was annoying. And it's harder to run on the street than on a treadmill. But I was really surprised that I ran the whole time without stopping. And I finished in about 35 minutes, which surprised the heck out of me, as well. I thought for sure it would take me 45 minutes to an hour.

When I crossed the finish line, I couldn't find Ben or the kids anywhere! I walked around forever, trying to track them down. It turns out that Sadie had to go potty, and Ben dragged everyone to the port-a-potty, and that's where they were. So Ben made me cross the finish line again, so he could take a picture of it:

They had free hot dogs and soda and chips afterwards, which was great, and there were a couple of bouncy castles for the kids to play in: