Saturday June 3rd
Today is my 5k.....YAY! Steve, Sarah and I got back into Fergus Falls around Midnight. I was so tired from our short trip, and little sleep. As I layed my very weary head on my pillow, I prayed to God that I did not oversleep. I got up at 7am, and started getting ready for the race at 830am. I was really excited, I was meeting a couple of friends, who also joined the LIFE Runners this year. I have been recently asked to be the Minnesota Chapter Champion for the LIFE runners. I recruited Jill and her husband, and we were all doing our first race together. My older three kids are at Grandma's, so I just had Sarah, and I figured instead of finding a babysitter, I would just see if I could borrow a jogging stroller, and have her run with me. Some friends of friends were kind enough to let me borrow their stroller. They just said that there is a slight wobble in one of the tires. When I got the stroller this am, I ran a couple circles in the parking lot, and didn't notice a wobble, so I thought GREAT! I put Sarah in it, and headed over to the starting area. If you have ever been involved in a race, you know the atmosphere is electric! It is so exciting to be part of! Since this one was in Fergus, Steve and I ran into several people we know. We were visiting, and then Steve ran off to warm up and start his run. After the Half-marathoners started, they started lining up the 5kers. I was sooooo excited, and Jill was right there next to me, just as excited! We gather for a quick prayer and then it was time. On your mark, get set, GO! I start running, and had to immediately stop. The tire on the stroller was wobbling so bad that it had scared the daylights out of Sarah, and she was screaming. For a brief moment Jill looked at me, like should I stop? and I said go, I'm fine. At this point people are whizzing by me, as I am walking and stopping and walking and stopping trying to figure out if I could fix this stroller, and trying to get my poor baby to quit screaming. Now I am in dead last, and every time I try to pick up any speed the wheel starts wobbling and Sarah starts crying. I look behind me and see the following bike gal, almost falling off her bike because I am going so slow and starting and stopping. I felt terrible. She said she had to stay behind the last person. I was in tears at this point. Sarah is crying, I'm panicked and disappointed. I thought well maybe, I'll have to drop out of the race. I shook that thought off, and decided that I did not care if I had to carry Sarah the whole way, I was going to do this 5k. As I am trying to not cry, I start praying, and asking God for a way for me to finish this race, I hoped I would see some friends on the sidelines, that I could entrust Sarah too, but that never happened. As I was walking, I realized that the stroller wobbled less, if I lifted up on it. So it was like pushing a wheel barrel. I lifted the back two tires off the ground, and pushed it mainly on the front wheel. I also noticed I could walk a lot faster. I still could not run, but I picked up my walking pace. I was soooo happy when I passed the first group of walkers, and I was no longer last. I felt very guilty because here I was in my LIFE runners jersey, and I was walking. Not to mention that I would be the last one of the group to cross the finish line. I'm supposed to be the leader! As I wrestled to get my emotions under control, I walked as fast as I could go. I was passing a significant amount of people. I always got some interesting looks, because here I am pushing this jogging stroller like a wheelbarrow and going as fast as I can. They must have thought that I had lost my marbles. I just kept pushing. Sarah calmed down after the first 3/4 of a mile, and did pretty well after that. The only time she would get upset is if I tried going to fast and the wheel would go crazy again. I noticed at about 20 minutes in, my shins started in on their normal burning and intense pain. I didn't care, I was so focused on balancing the stroller, keeping Sarah calm and walking as fast as I could that I just pushed through it. At about 25 minutes in I noticed they were no longer hurting. I hit a wall, and pushed passed it. I felt good. By the time I got to mile 3 my emotions were calmer, and I had a good rhythm going. I was steadily passing people. As I approached the finish line, I so badly just wanted to run. I saw Jill then off to the side about 200 yards from the finish line. She took Sarah from me, and I sprinted across the finish line. My hubby and Coach Pat were joking after the fact at how a lot of people were probably really judging me. Pat giggled and said I bet people were thinking "what a sandbagger!" Steve on the other hand likened my moment of passing off Sarah, to the moment when Forrest Gump was running and broke free of his braces! I'm glad they could make me laugh. I was truly very, very disappointed that I did not get to run, but I was proud of myself for not quitting, even when it seemed like it would be impossible to finish! In many ways this was good for me. I was in dead last....which is like my worst nightmare, and I didn't give up. In Fact I passed over 200 people, and finished only 7 minutes behind some of the runners in my group. It is good for me to realize that I can be proud of just finishing. I had terrible luck, and yet I overcame the adversity put in front of me. I did it with prayer. Running this race was like life.....cling to Jesus, and you can overcome all odds.
I do plan on running another 5k next month, and no I will not be borrowing a stroller. I will be getting a babysitter. Overall, It was a great day, and I got a very good full body workout in!
Sunday June 5th
I woke up this am and felt like I had been hit by a truck. My legs were not hurting, but my neck and back were so stiff that I could hardly move! I got up took some Motrin, and got ready for Church. I was planning to go for a run after Steve got done mowing. However, some very sweet friends of ours called and offered to watch Sarah for us so we could go out on a date. It had been a while since we had gotten out, so we took them up on it. So I did not get my run in today.
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