I am thankful for a healthy body!

Before our races

I haven't yet loaded pictures and videos from our actual Thanksgiving day/dinner, which was quite nice, but my friend Kirstin had these pictures from our Believe races today, so I thought I'd post this while it was fresh. This is who I ran the half marathon with in May. Since then she has run a full marathon and is signed up for another on New Year's day. She actually ran the 10K today, and placed first in her age group!

I have totally been looking forward to this 5K race. Sure it's only 3.1 miles, but I was really hoping I could feel good enough to medal. After looking at times from previous races last night, I didn't think that was really going to happen; I just wanted to have a good, solid run for where I am right now in pregnancy.  Last night I spent a couple of hours getting the right playlist, and it turned out to be a great one.

The weather was supposed to be cold and rainy, and when I woke up around 4am I heard rain and just prayed we'd have a brief respite for the race. The weather was lovely, probably the best hour of the day! There wasn't much wind, no rain, and the sun came out. I did have to take off my jacket about 3 seconds into the race though. =) It started turning cold again during the awards ceremony, so I guess my prayer was answered!

I started out around an 8:30 pace and was pretty solid in keeping it. There were a number of hills, something I'm not used to running around my house, so I did have some slight variations in time. I have to say, I love, love, love running with my Garmin. I don't know how I ran without it before!  When I hit the half way point, I started passing people pretty regularly. I may have sped up a little, but I think some of them just started out too fast maybe and were slowing down? Not sure. I had to really focus on keeping my breath even at a couple of points when I started feeling a little constricted, but with little sips of water and concentrating on maintaining my peace and confidence, I never felt like I was pushing it too hard.

Matt and the boys were at the finish to meet me. The last stretch was up a decent hill, so I was a little winded. He did take a video of me coming in so maybe I'll post that when I get it loaded. Matt took the boys home shortly after that, but Kirstin and I wanted to stay for the results.

After our races with our medals

Kirstin saw hers first. She was the 9th woman overall in the 10K and 1st in her category with an 8:07/mi pace!  I was a little surprised to find my name and see that I placed SECOND in my age category!!! I medaled at 30 weeks pregnant! Just think how fast I could be without a little fetus in my belly! It was very empowering. I used to think that I was just a jogger, but I really do think I'd consider myself a runner now. My time was 26:30 for the 3.1 miles which put me at an 8:22/mi. pace. I was pretty happy with that considering that was just as good as my best pre-pregnancy pace in the past year!  We stuck around for the medal ceremony and had someone take our pic. with our medals on. I think I need to learn how to pose for pictures better, though, because I mainly just look like a butterball turkey with some pretty hefty thighs in this! haha. Ah well. At least this Turkey can run. I can say I am very, very thankful for a healthy body. What a blessing.