Not So Lazy Summer Day

I did it! I can't believe I did it! Who would have thought? Definitely not me! This July Fourth I finished my first ever race - Eugene's 35th annual "Butte to Butte" 10K. I didn't really tell anyone I was planning to do it just in case I wimped out and didn't participate, but I've been training myself for the last two months or so and trying to get my rear into shape. It's been really tough, and I am soooo NOT a runner, but our ward apparently participates every year and so that was a much needed push to really do this thing.

There is the 4.5 mile Mayor's Walk which most people from our ward participated in, but I figured that this was my big opportunity to prove to myself that I could do the big run. Jake participated in the Salt Lake City 5K back when we were engaged, and I always thought it would be cool to say that I did something like that, too. Especially with the big 3-0 creeping up on me here. I thought that this was just as good a time as any. So, every week I tried jogging further and further until I knew I could make the 6.2 mile stretch without killing myself. Thank goodness for Google Maps and my mp3 player for helping me! It was also a great motivator that Eugene is pretty much the running capital of the US, so there is literally an all-weather track right next to our apartments, running pavements and wood-chip running trails at the park across the street and throughout town, plus scads of runners (both "pros" and "nots" like me). I just didn't have a good excuse why NOT to participate.
So, here I am at 6:30am with my number pinned on and microchip attached to my shoe (how state-of-the-art, huh?). The fugly lime green shirt is our ward's T-shirt so that we could be recognized as a group. It reads, "No Common Latter-day Saints" and has the scripture from Mosiah 15:15 "And O how beautiful upon the mountains were their feet!" Perfect, right? The shirt definitely made it easier for others to spot me as well as for me to later spot myself in posted pictures and video (those links will take you to "Butte to Butte" sites with a posted video of the finish and the professional photographer's shots of the runners). Jake and the boys cheered me on at about the four mile mark. It was good to see some smiling faces to keep me moving. There were also some other ward members along the route to give me a shout out.

I finished with an official time of 1:01:58, which I was totally happy with. One, because I ran the entire thing, so I was just happy to be done. Two, because I was about in the later-middle of the pack, so I beat out the folks that came in at nearly the two hour mark (I was terrified of coming in last). And three, because that meant that I ran about a 9:50 mile which I feel is totally respectable for a non-runner. Yeah! No records broken here, but it was a huge accomplishment for me personally both for my personal fitness and just as a "now I can say I've done it" sort of thing.