Police Run

Ok, for those of you who have been bugging me for bugging Jennie because she hasn't been blogging and yet I don't seem to be blogging very often lately either ... yes, you are correct, HOWEVER, her and I do agree that I have blogged more than her lately. It's just a fun ribbing between friends. Jennie put it very well to me today when she said, "Living actual life is getting in the way of me blogging." Very true. Let me catch you up on my life. I will try to be more on top of things again. I PROMISE 3 new posts in the next week (this will be #1).

Waaaaaay back in September, Carmen and I ran the Police Run. Now, as much as I hate to admit this, I'd only run twice since the Sun Run in April and had only been on a dozen or so walks since then. I wasn't keeping up on my fitness regime like I had wanted to, but I signed up for the Police Run anyways. I toyed with the idea of not running because I thought it would practically kill me because I'm so out of shape, and who wants to die, right? The night before the run I was at Bren's place and her and Jennie and I were hanging out and at about midnight Jennie looks at me and says, "You're not getting up tomorrow." Oh, it's on! No one challenges me like that. Ha ha, ok, maybe my pride got in the way a little there and I felt like I had to prove something, but I'm actually glad that it did. I woke up the next morning and thought, "I can do this. If only to see how it goes, I can do this, and no, it won't kill me."

Off I went to pick up Carmen (who has a gym membership and goes a LOT more than I've gone over the last few months). My goal to myself was to try to run the whole thing (we opted for the 5 km version) and only walk if I absolutely had to and to try to get it done in 35 minutes.

At about minute 4, this was the view I had of Carmen.

She's the one in the green jacket and black pants in the middle of the picture. "Bye, Carmen! Have a good run!"

There were a few times when I thought I would stop. At minute 15 I thought, "Am I crazy?" When we turned the last corner out of Downes Bowl and onto Tretheway, I thought, "Ok, I can practically see the finish line. I can do this," and then I heard someone coming up behind me and I could hear them go from a run to a walk and it sounded SOOOOOO good, but I pressed on. When we were beside Mouat Secondary, I looked over beside me and there was a little girl with her Dad and she was honestly maaaaaaybe 4 or 5 years old and she was at the same spot as me! What the heck? I almost asked her if I could take her picture when we crossed the finish line to show her to you (see, even if I'm not blogging, I'm thinking about blogging), but I didn't want to be the creepy lady at the Police Run, so I didn't take her picture. If a 5 year old can do it, I can do it. I kept going, and here's a picture of me crossing the finish line.

Ok, it's not actually a picture of ME crossing the finish line because I'm taking the picture, but can you see what the time says? 35 minutes, 47 seconds! I was in the 35 minute range (the timer is always a bit off because depending where you are in the pack, you never cross the starting line when they start timing, so the finish line time isn't your real time).

I saw a few friends when I crossed the finish line so I forgot to stop my own timer until I had walked away from them, but when I did stop it, my timer said I was within the 35 minute mark, too!

Carmen had finished about 4 minutes ahead of me. Way to go, Carmen! Thanks again for running with me and getting me out there.

When they posted the times online, this is what mine said (I'm in the middle of the page. Sorry for the blurriness).

Do you see that? 35 minutes EXACTLY!!! That was the time I was aiming for, and I hit it! I was quite happy with myself. I remembered that it's not as hard as I always tell myself it is when I'm sitting on the couch. Yes, it's a tad bit harder now that the rains have set in, but I have gotten out there a few times and hope to keep it up better than I did after the Sun Run. I don't know if you've noticed my countdown to Malaysia or not, but I have to be in a bathing suit in 47 days, so it would be nice to drop a few pounds before I leave. Here's to hoping!