Our first race… We came, we walked, We WON, We WON!!!!
It sounds like the beginning of a joke “A deranged rabbit,
Rudolph, and a couple of snowmen pull into a park”…. And it was pretty funny…
we pulled into a local park that cold December morning for the Jingle Run 5k, a
race benefitting the Arthritis Foundation… and my sister and I giggled. No one in
line had dressed in costumes but the website and registration did say to wear them! (we now know the serious runners don’t typically
dress in full costumes for races and they typically arrive early) We shrugged
our shoulders, laughed and unloaded. Heck
we had spent a week on our costumes they weren’t going to waste! What unfolded
over the next 2 hours is what movies are made of, not blockbuster million dollar movies, but quaint small budget, feel good independant movies. We got checked in, pinned on our bibs
(running numbers that allow the race people to register your start and finish
time), let the littles see Santa and proceeded to the starting line. We had already set our goals low…. planned on
just walking it a) we were out of shape, b) the baby was in an umbrella
stroller because in all our prep for the race, checking the jogging stroller
that had been sitting for over a year wasn’t on the checklist and it
had a dry rotted tire, oops! c) we had four small children in tow. We prefaced the
race with even if we don’t finish our money is going to a good cause, but our
goal was to just finish avoid the “poop out van” at all cost! We had already
been stopped at least 20 times for photo ops… everyone wanted pictures with the
Deranged pink bunny (think Raphie in A Christmas Story), and Elf on a Shelf,
Rudolph, A Grumpy little Santa, and two Snow mommies in tutus… I’d like to
think it was because of our excellent costumes, but I’m sure they were uploaded
to everyone’s facebook pages saying, “look at these crazy freaks” and “OMG,
check this out” (if you see them please tag me! Heehee) The race starts and we
soon realize how unprepared we were, so we held back and let all the people
with arthritis (not joking) that were running, the elderly people, and just
about everyone else pass us… by the first mile marker we had developed a
pattern of the Elf, Bunny, and Rudolph
running about 100 yards ahead of us and then sitting on a park bench and
waiting on us to catch up. Don’t worry Rudolph had 20 bells on, we could hear her a mile away
and the Pink Bunny was never out of sight.
Elise and I began to learn about 5ks, the first of many lessons I will pass on. Shoes,
good shoes are very important factor, (duh!) for the sake of my costume I wore
black snow boots… cute as can be, but even just walking in them for 3.1 miles,
sucked, back hurt, blisters, the works
(motrin is your friend). And then there’s
Layers, when you layer because it’s cold, in a race you heat up after a mile,
even just walking one, and the layers need to come off! So 3 pairs of tights, 3
shirts, etc. is a bad idea. Undressing as you walk and needing someplace to
store the stuff is an issue. The more
races we’ve done the more we have learned, what to wear, what to pack and how
to carry it… I will pass on the info to you! At the halfway point is where we said “ONLY
HALFWAY, ARE YOU FREAKING SERIOUS?” and then met up with a Sorority that fell
in love with the littles. Their attention kept the boys going… at every stop
the Elf and deranged bunny posed for photos, paused for laughs and applause from passers
by.
By the last mile Rudolph had lost all her bells and we had stripped down to
one layer and the bunny was a dirty mess… red faced and rough looking, we
finished. It took us an hour and 15
minutes to walk 3.1 miles… we think, they actually didn’t post our time because
we were so slow, but from what we can piece together that’s how long it took
us. We finished! The thing about 5K’s no
matter what your time is, the crowd
cheers just as loud for the last runners as they do the first. We did it, it
wasn’t pretty, but we finished what we started…. We headed to the finishing
party already under way, they were finishing up passing out all the medals to
the winners, the littles got their Krispy Kreme’s, which to them were trophies and we got our
water and banana’s. We proud of ourselves… we did it, and then when we thought
we were done for the morning walking away from the after party they handed us a medal, for best
costumes! We WON, We WON! And with that
we were hooked! Well that and the
feeling that we had actually accomplished something before 10am on a
Saturday. We later discussed doing more
and then decided to resolve for the New Year to do one 5K every month little
did we know what we were really starting and how it would change us. We signed up
for the Hot Chocolate 5K in Atlanta and started to train! Subscribe to my blog and take
the journey with us, get inspired, learn from our experiences at our races,
support us as we train and challenge ourselves….. tips from previous races and
up and coming races also (The Color Run, The Hot Chocolate Run, Run the Reagan,
Zombie Run, Electric Run and more)
Register for this years Jingle Run here:
Snowman, Elf on the shelf and Rudolph costumes were made, Deranged Bunny was ordered online.
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