Go me! (Go you!)

First, I want to say thanks to all of you who have shown me support as I have gotten 50 Races, 50 States going these past few weeks. I've got two races in two states planned this year for sure, and there's still the possibility of one or two more, and I have heard from so many people with offers for places to stay when I get to certain states in the future, which will be a great help. I've also gotten several generous donations to get my fundraising off to a great start. Your support means the world to me, and it really helps to keep me going when I'm out there racking up the miles (36 total in the 6 weeks since I got the OK to run again after Roan was born - a pretty good start!).

Second, I want to share something exciting that happened last weekend at the Jewish Family Services 5K, my second race since giving birth - I actually placed in my age group! Here's a pic of me getting my medal, which Aren wore for the rest of the day. :)


Now this is something that has never happened for me. I like to run races, so I run a lot, but I am not a really fast runner. In fact, I just started consistently running rather than run/walking races about two years ago.

When Louise and I crossed the finish line at the Live By Example 5K back in April, I felt so good and knew I could have run it even faster. I was still walk/running at that point, just a few weeks after getting the OK from my midwife to get back out there, and for my next race I had the choice between running the JFS 5K or walk/running the 8K. I decided to sign up for the 5K and give it all I had, and that's what I did. It was a little humid and pretty breezy Sunday morning, but I still finished in 30:42, 18 seconds faster than my goal time! I had hoped to keep up a 10-minute mile pace, and I did even better than that. (I think I also lucked out in that most of the faster 30-somethings ran the 8K rather than the 5K that day, but it doesn't matter to me.)

3rd place out of 17 is the best I have ever done, and I really do have you all to thank for it. It helps to have a support team behind me, and of course it's easy to run when I have a cause like Charley's Fund and a reason like Owen in mind. There were a few moments early in the race when I felt like I should stop and walk - I was once again running against the wind for half of the race - but I didn't. You were the hand at my back telling me to keep moving forward.