to the bay

The Around the Bay road race is as old as the hills. Older then the Boston Marathon, even. I wasn't crazy enough to run the 30k around the bay, but I did feel confident enough to tackle the 5k to the bay and back. Spoiler alert....... I was over confident. You see it's been a kind of miserable winter here. A miserable never ending winter. It's been too icy or just too darn frigid for running outside. I gave the ole college try a time or three, but it really was hard getting out there. So treadmill running it's been. I read recently in my running magazine that you can't really train for a road race on a treadmill and I am here to tell you they are 100% right. Gosh my legs are sore today!

So I wasn't at my best. I have a bit of a cold, but even still yesterday was pretty much dipped in awesome sauce. It's been a few months since I ran a race and just before I found myself wondering why I was even running it. I'm not competitive by nature, I have no chance of winning... why was I running a race?



Then I got there. Got all bibbed up....



and I remembered, because it's freakin' amazing. Yes it is. It's fun, so much fun. I mean you're surrounded by thousands of people that share the same love so there's a little bit of a party atmosphere. Then you're off and the crowd thins out and suddenly I'm just running with one of my most favouritest people in this world. I always run alone, which I love as well. Gives me time to clear my mind, recharge and come back ready to take on the homework, dinner, tidy up, refereeing arguments and all that fun stuff, but it's pretty darn fun to run with Kim. Usually she insists I go ahead and not let her hold me back, but I was not at the top of my game and she pushed me right through to the end, which I greatly appreciated.



That's her right there telling me... you can do it, don't stop running now, we're almost finished.... and so on. She's awesome! Although I may have not believed her right at that moment because my lungs were on fire. Damn cold! It's not even a really bad cold, but boy could I feel it when I was running.



But I did make it to the end. You should see the event pictures from the finish line.... Kim looks happy and great and I look like I'm going to die! I think I might buy a copy of it.



I will never tire and I will never be unemotional about seeing my family at the finish line. I hope they know how much it means to me that they take the time out to be there. I truly love it. And not just because they bring me flowers :) On an unrelated note... look how tall my kid is. When the heck did this happen? This growing up shit has to stop!

So the stats... well we ran it in 44:21.... six minutes slower than my best time. I finished 1651 out of 2100+ runners. 968 out of 1342 women. and 111 out of 149 in my age class. More importantly I was out there and that's a win right there. Where do I sign up for the next one.

Also.....



I have the best family ever. This is the card that was with my flowers. Year of AWESOME for sure! Love that they get me!