First race

For a long time I've been on off-and-on runner (jogger, really). Since having Nico, I had been doing walk-run programs sporadically. In June, when we were visiting Jon and Diana (and they were training for a marathon), I got a 10K training plan from Diana and decided to see if I could even do the first workout--a three mile run. I could, so I decided to register for my first race to give me more motivation. 

I found a race with a great cause and a personal connection. It was called Racing the Cane and benefits kids in the Dominican Republic (where I lived for a short time) who work in the sugar cane fields. The proceeds go toward their educations, but you can also donate running shoes to go to the kids and they use them to run in their own race a few months later. A cool idea!

I did an eight-week training program that ended the day of the race. I use the Nike+ system, but I didn't calibrate it until the second-to-last week, when I realized I had been under-training a bit the whole time. Oh well. Kristin registered for the race with me, and the evening before we drove the course together. I was so glad we did because it turned out there was a huge long hill toward the end of it, and it was good to be able to pace myself for that (I hadn't been training on hills at all). 

The main racing tip I'd read and heard from people was to avoid starting out too fast, so I really worked on holding myself back for the first couple of miles. I felt like I had so much energy because I'd been tapering that last week, but I held myself to a 10/10:30 mile at the beginning. Around mile 3, I started to pick up the pace. That was the most enjoyable part of my run. There was a long slight decline, I felt great, and I was passing a bunch of people who it seemed had started off too fast. 

I had two goals--to run the whole time and to come in under an hour. The hill around mile 4 or 5 definitely made the first one difficult, but I managed to run up the whole hill (slowly). I was pretty wasted at the top though. But I was also motivated to keep my pace up enough to make running up the hill worth it. The last mile or so was pretty brutal though. I remember thinking at one point "Why am I doing this?" But when I got to the final stretch, I got one more burst of energy and the finishing lap around the track was fun because my family was all there, cheering me on. And I ended up coming in at 55:48.2, a 9-minute/mile pace, and 5th in my age group, so I made my second goal too!

This is a great race and a fun tradition. They had yummy Magleby's breakfast and massages afterwards as well. I'm planning on doing it every year!

I sped up to pass one lady at the very end. Okay, I'm a little competitive.

Seconds away from the finish line!

Kristin giving five to Zoe right before the finish line.

Happy to be done!

There was a 1K kids race that Zoë really wanted to be in, so we signed her up at the last minute. She lost no time in stretching with the other kids.

They ended up deciding to have three-year-olds run around just half of the track. Here they are at the starting line. They all started at different times and some, including Zoë, kept running straight for a while instead of making the turn. It was pretty funny.

She had a BLAST and won first place for the girls (out of a total of 2 :) ).

She let Nico wear her medal.

Then she got her face painted like a fast cheetah and ran some more "races."

And did lots of roaring.

What a cutie.