Hello friends! It has been a super crazy weekend and the business just keeps coming.

Now for my very first ever RACE RECAP!!! Sunday morning Steve and I woke up bright and early at 5:45 to get ready and head out for the race. I’d hardly slept because I was so excited/nervous/anxious to participate in my first race. We met Jason at his house and then headed into downtown Phoenix where thousands of people had gathered to participate in this event. It was pretty inspiring how many people had devoted their early Sunday morning to be there. When we arrived, we met up with Nacho and wandered around a little checking out the different booths.

Those super cute pink shorts were purchased special on Saturday for the race. I wanted to be festively pink from head to toe from the occasion. Even my socks were pink, but you can’t see them in this picture 🙂

Steve wandered off to play photographer while Jason, Nacho and I got ready for the race. As we were getting ready, the breast cancer survivors lined up for their run which began shortly before ours. As soon as I saw them lining up I got unexpectedly emotional. Something about seeing people who have survived something so big out there running–it just hit something and we all know I’m a big emotional basket case anyway. After they took off, I pulled it together and got ready to begin myself.

Of course today of all days Pandora decided to totally suck. I couldn’t get my application to load on my phone and from then on my music was intermittent to non existent. Boo. Anyway, they counted us off and I immediately became annoyed by the crowd of people in front of me keeping my pace to a slow crawl. I have a patience problem. I’m aware of it. I’m working on it, but it’s not getting better fast enough.

Finally after about 5 minutes, the crowd thinned out enough for me to find my own pace. This is where I made my big mistake. I wanted to make up time, plus my adrenaline was kicking. Add that to being a super competitive person (I have a hard time when children beat me in board games), and you get the big mistake of starting off too fast for your own good. Of course later that day I read on an other blog how starting off too fast in the beginning is the fastest way to kill your time. I started running at an 8:50-9:00 pace, which considering my fastest pace for a similar distance was 9:40, was way too fast for my running fitness level.

A little after the 2 mile mark, it really started to hit me. I got a big cramp in my side (who gets cramps?!) and my tummy started to really bug me. Finally, I gave in to my body and took a few walking breaks. I was so upset because I really wanted to run the whole thing, but I had just worn myself out too quickly and knew I was going to have to walk a little if I wanted to keep going. Finally, I turned a corner and could see the finish line. I got so excited, and I wanted to make up for the lost time in my walking breaks, so I began sprinting towards it. Unfortunately, it was further away than it looked. So deceiving, that finish line! Meanwhile, I’m running at a 7:40 pace (yes, I do check my Garmin pretty religiously–it’s new and shiny!), and feeling like I’m about to die, but you canNOT stop, walk, or slow down once the finish line is in sight–isn’t that some sort of unwritten rule? Well it was in my brain, so I chugged along, and once I finally crossed that finish line, my stomach pains came full force and I wanted to collapse on the ground. It felt so much harder than I imagined it would considering I have run this distance and longer! But I definitely learned a valuable lesson about pacing myself. If anyone had told me to slow down at the beginning of the race, there is no way I would have listened. I just needed to experience it myself.

I REALLY wanted to finish in under 30 minutes. Well my friends, that didn’t happen. Not even close. But, even with my lame-o walking breaks, I still managed to finish with an average pace of 9:58 which isn’t too bad for my very first race.

As I caught my breath, I went to meet Steve, but we had location difficulties and I ended up waiting by myself until Jason and Nacho came up to meet me. Of course, as I was sitting there alone, I became a much less than perfect wife and got super grumpy with Steve because I wanted to see him the second I crossed the finish line. I really wanted to share the moment with him, but it ended up that by the time I saw Jason and Nacho, it almost didn’t feel real anymore. I expected to feel this huge sense of accomplishment, but all I could think about how I didn’t meet my goals and how if a 5K was this hard, how am I ever going to run a half marathon in January?! So unproductive, I know! Who finishes their first race and can’t enjoy it?! My attitude needs a serious adjustment, otherwise it’s just going to make things harder! Does anyone else have a really hard time feeling accomplished and not focusing on what could have been better?

After a while, we finally met up with Steve and headed to brunch at St Francis! As soon as I looked at the brunch menu, I immediately wanted to order everything on it, as well as a cocktail at 10am. Is that bad? 🙂 Well, I did not ending ordering a drink, and tried to order mindfully because we had plans later that evening to take a cooking class (more on that awesomeness to come!) To start, we got an order of the fingerling potatoes to share.

Jason and Steve won best menu selection with their skillet of red wine marinated pot roast and eggs. I had a bite. It was pretty much like heaven in your mouth.

I ordered an egg white omelet with goat cheese, and marinated mushrooms and onions. It was the perfect balance of healthy and delicious, and they gave me so many mushroom! Yum!

I even had one of the pieces of bread with some delicious raspberry jam. It may have been my favorite part of the whole meal. Wait, actually my favorite part was my one bite of Steve’s food. Must recreate somehow.

After we finished eating, we posed for some post race photos.I decided that even though it was a non competitive race, we were the winners and should pose as such. And because I finished first, I was in first place and needed to stand higher up in the middle. Obviously.

You can see my pink socks in this one! ^^^

I absolutely love these guys and I am so glad I got to experience my first race with them! When Jason and I were talking he said “I just never would have believed it if anyone would have told me I would be doing this with you.” Sometimes it’s easy to forget where you came from. The first time I attempted to run on a treadmill, I quit after 10 seconds. “I can’t do it.” I said to my friend Mandie. Convinced I was right. Convinced that it wasn’t an excuse.

My personal running mantra that I always repeat to myself when things get tough is “I can do anything.” To me, that sums everything up. I never thought I could lose 70 lbs. When my entire life revolved around food and counting my calories, I never thought I would find balance between who I was before and who I had become. I never thought I would reach my goal of participating in a race–any race. And I certainly never thought I would announce to the world that I was training for a half marathon. I also never thought I would be able to learn how to dance or sing, or be good enough to get my BFA. But every single goal I have put my mind to in life, I have achieved. I can do anything.

The first time I wrote this post, I pressed published and it all disappeared. I freaked out a little, cried, and then went to write round two. But the first time, I didn’t get to the part where I reflected where I came from, and as someone who believes everything happens for a reason, maybe I needed to start over so that I could give myself a little credit, and remind myself that I.Can.Do.Anything. You know what? So can you.

Thanks for reading, everyone. This one is pretty important to me 🙂