2013 5ks

Until May of 2012, I had not ever done a 5k or anything of the like. Since then, I have done 6 5ks and a triathlon. I am proud of me! I may end up walking a lot (I tore my ankle up in college and running is difficult), but I finish. Julie (my sister) and I ran Running With The Cows in May of this year. We did it last year too. I love cows, which is why we started doing it. But, even though the run is in the country, you don't actually see any cows. The cow we are pictured with is the only one we saw, except for someone dressed as the Chick-Fil-A Cow, and I think Julie said there was another cow that I didn't see.

In June, a friend, Heather, and I ran Hospital Hill. This was an extremely difficult course. She totally rocked it! I am proud to say I finished and ran about 1/3 of it. None of the course was flat, but there was an especially huge hill in it. There are not too many 5ks that you get a nice finisher's medal for completing it. It was through downtown Kansas City, which was a really neat backdrop for it. This year was their 40th anniversary, so we got a really nice I wanted to do it again next year, but I can't make that date.

At the start of the race

After the race

And the medal

This summer, Zach started running too because his soccer coach for this year is a cross country guy and warned us the kids would be running. In August, a friend and I decided at the last minute to do a 5k, so I asked Zach if he wanted to do it with me. He had been running at the track, but only a mile and a half. We decided Wednesday that we were doing the 5k on Saturday, so Wednesday he ran 2 miles at the track. I figured he could walk what he needed to. He decided to run with my sister because she runs a pretty consistent pace. When they got to the last 3/10 of a mile or so (when he could see the finish line), he sprinted it. He beat my sister by more than a minute. I was so proud of him!

Before the race

Start of the race (I am in the middle of the picture between #30 and #32)

Zach and Julie in the race

Zach crossing the finish line. Neither one of his feet are on the ground!

Julie hi-fiving Zach as she crosses the finish line

Me running to the end

And in September, we decided to do another 5k. My sister had done this one before, but I had not. Joshua also decided to join us. He barely ran at all outside of the running he does for refereeing. I figured he could walk what he needed to. Zach is a fast runner, but he tends to run too fast and not have anything left at the end, so I told him that he might want to run with Julie again. When I saw him running (it was an out and back type run), I didn't see her for quite some time afterwards. I was worried he would run out of steam and then be upset with himself. When I crossed the finish line, he was so excited because he had finished the run in 27 minutes! A full 4 minutes faster than his last run (which was a MUCH easier course than this one!), and 4 minutes faster than my sister. Joshua also did awesome, considering it was his first and he had not prepared at all!

Before the run

Josh Crossing the Finish Line

The boys' times