Cleveland 10K

About a week before I went back to work and about 6 weeks after I had Tenley I made a commitment to get back in shape and lose the baby weight.  I knew I had to stick with it since my sister's wedding is this August.  In order to keep myself accountable I signed up for Weight Watchers and I also got the crazy notion to sign myself up for the Cleveland 10K.  After I had Rylee I made it a goal to run a 5K and I did.  This time I wanted to set my sights a bit higher so I could push myself.  At the same time Paul made the decision to run the Half Marathon.  

I stuck with my training, even though it got pretty hot the weeks leading up to the 10K.  I was having some knee issues and was starting to wonder if I would be able to actually RUN the whole distance without stopping.  The 10K actually started at a separate time that the half and the full, so I knew Paul wouldn't be around at all to keep me going. Luckily I wasn't running alone. A couple of my mommy friends had signed up too!  They were also 10K virgins so that put me a little more at ease.  Except for Becky who is super woman and ran her first full marathon!

Here we are pre-race:

Another thing that kept me going during my run was thinking of my friend Jen and her sweet little girl Ainsley who had passed away the week earlier after a long battle in the NICU. Becky and her husband made these awesome signs for us to pin to our back and run with that said Running in Memory of Ainsley.  If I ever felt the need to stop (which thankfully I didn't!) or push a little harder, I thought of that sweet little girls face and how brave and strong her and her family were during her short life.  

Here is us with our signs:

 I have to say, I'm not a morning person, let alone a morning exerciser. We were able to stay with Mindy in Lakewood the night before but we still had to get up around 4:45 am to trek our way to downtown Cleveland. Once we got down to the race the whole hype and adrenaline of everything started to kick in. I was REALLY nervous to start but away we went.  It was hot. Really hot.  I started out and pretty much knew after the first mile that it was going to be a good run.  My knee wasn't hurting and I really felt in the zone. My goal was to finish under 1:15:00.  I ended up finishing in 1:12:26.  Crossing that finish line was one of the prouder moments of my life.  I'm not a runner by any means and that is what makes these accomplishments that much more awesome! I went from feeling like I was going to pass out on C25K Week 1 Day 1 to running 6.2 miles!

I'm also proud to say that Paul finished his first Half Marathon even though he had minimal training due to some injuries.  I'm clearly in better spirits post-race than he was.  

I ran into a few old friends there and we got to catch up with Pauls cousin Dee and husband Joe who also ran the half. Speaking of Halfs, somehow I decided it would be awesome to run the Akron Half. We'll see how awesome it is running in the summer heat!  Wish me luck!