We rolled out of bed at 6:15 this morning, bent on hitting the road by 7:00 so we could make our race. It started at 8:00, after a huuuuge line to pick up our race packets yielded a gigantic orange shirt for me. Nice. They ran out of my size. Oh well 🙂 I met up with my students who were excited to run the race with me and we hit the start line, waiting to hear the buzzer. While over there, a group of us from my school conglomerated and took a photo, which was pretty cool. I love those moments where you’re with people you see all the time in one setting but now you’re in a COMPLETELY different setting…
{if you are too visible in this picture and want more fuzz or removal, lemme know!}
The horn blew and we were off! I thought I might be running with my students, or my daughter, or my friend Melissa, or my husband, or Rhiann, but I ended up running with the para educator who works in my classroom. Because I’m Captain Awesome, we call her Super V. I usually call her Lois, but whatever. We ran the entirety together, chatted while we ran and it was really fun. I was glad to have the opportunity to do something non-work with her. As we ran, we saw Rhiann and her daughter, Jude & Bradley, Gigi and her new friend and lots of other people who I teach with, but what was really fun was that it was a ‘there and back’ kind of race! As we ran back we passed people we knew we would cheer and call out to them; there was a distinct sense of community and the race was really fun. For the most part, the route was pretty flat. There were a few minor hills involved that seemed big on the decline, but the ascent went quickly and painlessly and, of course, we didn’t stop. In fact, the last bit was down a hill so we blasted down and killed our last mile! We finished the race with a time of 32:05. As we passed over the finish line a huge group of my people cheered us to the end, and we heaved and huffed and hung out, watching the rest of us travel over the finish line. Gigi ended up running with a little girl from my classroom (who will likely now be coming over for play dates) and they finished before we did in 29 minutes, while Bradley and Jude came in about five minutes after Lois and I. Jude did such a great job- Bradley said he ran about 2/3 of the race!
What followed can only be called runner’s high shopping insanity. They should never have an event like this at the mall because afterwards we had children who needed to go potty and while we were in there we just kind of decided to see what the Disney store had. They had our Halloween costumes, apparently, along with a few necessary Barbie dolls and sweatshirts. The Baby Gap had Gigi’s current dream outfit and I could have spent a lot more on underwear for myself, a new sofa and an American Girl Doll. And lunch. I didn’t. I had my credit card out today and fortunately I managed not to use it as much as my id wanted me too. But my kids are going to be decked out this Halloween!
We came home and, because Bradley had to walk part of the 5k with Jude, we headed out for another walk. This was like a hike, though, as we lost and gained about 500 feet of elevation (each way) in the space of 1.5 miles. Yep, we live on a hill so we did the hills and then, only then, did I feel like I had worked out enough. When we got home, Bradley was all, “Wanna work our arms out with weights?”
I was all, “No. Absolutely not.”
…
It was a good decision. I’m super tired now. The good kind of tired though.
I will love my hot tub an extra bunch tonight.