Crim 10 Mile Walk

I apologize for the lateness of this post. I've been VERY busy lately! My son Jacob will be starting kindergarten this coming Tuesday and we've had to go to orientation and I've had to go shopping for school supplies (suggested...not required) and food items for lunches. Our school district switched to all day kindergarten starting this school year (sorry if I've already said this) so I will need to pack him a lunch and an afternoon snack. They do have hot lunch...but I'm not a big fan...although from what I've read about our school lunch program it seems like they have improved the lunches quite a bit. *If anyone can give me healthy lunch ideas for a kid averse to sandwiches...he does like them, he's just going through a phase right now...I'd really appreciate it! So let me get to the MAIN EVENT!!!

It finally happened...my 10 mile walk in the Crim!!! It seemed like it would never get here. Not in a bad way. I loved my group training sessions (most of the time...see here for rant) as well as my C25K training along the way, but it just always seemed like the race was forever away...and now it has come and went.

Our team shirts...

We got a lot of compliments during the race.

I ended up NOT going for my first C25K week 8 workout on Thursday night. When I told my husband that I was planning on running he didn't think it was a good idea with the Crim just two days later. I had to get up at an UNGODLY hour the day of the race...around 5:30am. That IS an ungodly hour to me, the night owl. I made sure to have everything I was going to need set out the night before so I wouldn't have to search for anything with half an eye open. I got dressed and ate a blueberry bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. At 6:00am my mother-in-law came over to watch the kids and we ended up leaving around 6:20am or so. David parked a little farther away then I would have liked and we were both unhappy with that decision on the walk BACK to the car!

Waiting for the race to start.

My Crim training group was suppose to meet at a predetermined spot near the starting line at 7:15am so that we could take a group photo and just chat before starting the race. We had no plans of staying together once the race started. Everyone just goes at their own pace and if you happen to be with some group members, all the better, but no big deal if you aren't. When David and I got to that meeting spot, no one was there...not even our group leaders! I started to worry that the meeting spot had been changed and I didn't receive the e-mail/text. I'm NEVER the first one to show up anywhere (well...if its to wait in line for the midnight showing of Twilight or The Hunger Games...then I'm first at the theater!). Turns out my group leaders were just running behind...which is understandable when trying to find a parking space along with about 8,000 other people (and that's just the race participants)!!!  Some friends of ours met up with us to wish us good luck and we ended up talking until each of our waves were called. David was in wave C, while I was in wave E (the LAST wave).

I started off walking with G and T (I used a letter because I did not ask if I could use their names), a couple members of my training group and then we were met by two of our group leaders, A and C, when they caught up to us. After the first two miles I pulled ahead of G and T and kept pace with A and C for a good portion of the race. The atmosphere was awesome. There were so many people, businesses, schools, and churches that were lining the streets all along the 10 mile route. They were offering motivation, support, encouragement, water, Gatorade, beer, Hello Kitty imprinted toast (yes, you read that right), bacon, donuts (come on...really?), live bands, DJ'd music, or even just a round of applause for your accomplishment. It was really cool. I had pulled ahead of A and C around the 5 or 6 mile mark and was walking on my own until I could wait no longer to use one of the MANY port-a-potties. I HATE using a port-a-potty, but I was taking in A LOT of water (I wasn't going to pass up any opportunity to rehydrate with the temperatures climbing...reaching 90 by the time I finished). A and C caught up with me at that point and decided they needed to use the 'facilities' as well. I was going to wait for them when G and T passed us. C told me to go on and walk ahead with G and T so that's what I did. Shortly after crossing the 8 mile mark I looked up and saw David walking towards me!!! He had finished his run (obviously) and decided to walk back and look for me! Insert: AWWW...How sweet! So David ended up running 10 miles and then walking another 4 miles (2 to find me, and 2 to finish with me). His knees were hurting him pretty badly and I told him that while having him come back to find me was very nice of him, he should have just sat down (or walked at a slow pace around downtown so he didn't tighten up) and waited for me. By the time I made it to the finish line the crowd was pretty subdued...at least it seemed that way to me...but I didn't even hear them call my name right before I crossed the finish line so I was probably just zoning everything out. I ended up "gunning" it to the finish. As much as one can "gun" it after 10 miles and while only walking. : ) My finishing time...3:16:12! I also burned 1,010 calories on that walk. ; ) David finished in 1:35:26.

My finishing medal.

This year everyone who participated received a medal...lucky me!

I have some other non-weight loss related things in the works that are going to help me improve my life so they are relevant to this blog but I'll post about those later because it has already taken me WAY TOO LONG to get this Crim race report out. : )

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Wednesday. I have two school open houses to go to this afternoon/evening. Jacob's elementary school open house and Nathan's preschool open house! Busy, busy, busy!