When picking up my packet for the Columbus Half Marathon , I ran across Breathe Deep, a fundraiser 5K raising money for lung cancer. I was instantly drawn to it, since I lost my mother to lung cancer back in Feb. 2007. My BFF, Sara, who was with me turned to me and said "I'll do it with you".
As long as my schedule allowed, I was in. My boys would be with me. Ever since Marie did a 5K pushing her trips, I had to try it. Competitive? Maybe. More like "I want those bragging rights". Maybe this:
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yeah, just a little :)
The race went fine. Nice warmish day in November. We didn't know the route before we started, but boy were those ittle bitty hills killers. Even not pushing 100 lbs would have been trying. I remember those during the Giant Eagle 5K. I've haven't had a lot of experience with running with a stroller, well, I had run once with it. But, it was only 3 miles, right?
I forgot about the stress of having 2 little ones around. Snacks, drinks, toys, potties. I spilled my drink in their stroller trying to get it down a flight of stairs to get to the start line. Then Keegan didn't want to sit in a wet seat. I was instantly stressed. I grabbed a shirt (sorry, Sara) and threw Keegan in. We took off and immediately went up hill. I heard behind me "already?" and it made me laugh out loud. We had no time to warm up. Speaking of warm, I overdressed. I wanted to take my jacket off so badly, but I pinned my bib to both sides of the zipper. Amateur. Just one more reason I need a different fuel belt, so I can never touch a safety pin again. Also, I was running with NO powerade since I spilled it before we started. Insert panic.
Everyone passed me made a comment. "Wow", "that's hard", "you rock", and my favorite from Sara's hubby "can I get in?". I held my pace and was after a 40 minute finish. I squeaked in. Barely.
There were 2 other strollers in this race, including my friend Vicky, which also lost her Nanny (grandmother) to lung cancer. Overall, the race wasn't too bad. We dropped one toy, one drink, and got a little nascar at Mile 3 and got into the wall :) But, we recovered.
Here are the photos from the day:
See the guy on the right? That's Sara's father in law, Sam. He was so inspired when he watched us run the half, he signed up for this race, trained for 25 days and placed FIRST in his age class. He has never run a race before this day. YOU ROCK, SAM!
The race went fine. Nice warmish day in November. We didn't know the route before we started, but boy were those ittle bitty hills killers. Even not pushing 100 lbs would have been trying. I remember those during the Giant Eagle 5K. I've haven't had a lot of experience with running with a stroller, well, I had run once with it. But, it was only 3 miles, right?
I forgot about the stress of having 2 little ones around. Snacks, drinks, toys, potties. I spilled my drink in their stroller trying to get it down a flight of stairs to get to the start line. Then Keegan didn't want to sit in a wet seat. I was instantly stressed. I grabbed a shirt (sorry, Sara) and threw Keegan in. We took off and immediately went up hill. I heard behind me "already?" and it made me laugh out loud. We had no time to warm up. Speaking of warm, I overdressed. I wanted to take my jacket off so badly, but I pinned my bib to both sides of the zipper. Amateur. Just one more reason I need a different fuel belt, so I can never touch a safety pin again. Also, I was running with NO powerade since I spilled it before we started. Insert panic.
Everyone passed me made a comment. "Wow", "that's hard", "you rock", and my favorite from Sara's hubby "can I get in?". I held my pace and was after a 40 minute finish. I squeaked in. Barely.
There were 2 other strollers in this race, including my friend Vicky, which also lost her Nanny (grandmother) to lung cancer. Overall, the race wasn't too bad. We dropped one toy, one drink, and got a little nascar at Mile 3 and got into the wall :) But, we recovered.
Here are the photos from the day:
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| Team "Running on Memories" missing Vicky and Courtney. |
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| Balloons let off in remembrance. Note: our balloons left early. twice. |
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| Vicky & Parker |
The Details
The Course:
My chip time: 39:52, 12:50 pace
My Garmin time: 40:29, 12:32 pace, 3.23 miles
My splits:
1 - 12:25
2 - 12:33
3 - 13:00
4 - 11:03
I look forward to doing Breathe Deep again. This is a new race and I would love to support lung cancer research while running. Next Race: BREATHE DEEP NEWARK on May 12, 2012. Who's in?
See ya on the run!
Beautiful recap and so wonderful that you could do something you like to do for a good cause and to remember your mom.
ReplyDeleteI admit - I think my favorite thing in this post was imagining you calling yourself an amateur. :D
Thanks! A girl there put on her "race shirt" which was a LS cotton tee, she managed to put pins through 2 layers. At least it wasn't that bad, I could unzip. And, no one wears cotton :)
DeleteWow, Sam is awesome! Anyways, way to maintain a sense of humor about the whole race! I was laughing a little at the amateur comment too. We'll definitely have to do some stroller runs together once my kid is old enough!
ReplyDeleteYou crack me up! Sam & Tim just read this too . . . Tim is still bitter you wouldn't let him in your ride. :) We're looking forward to spending my birthday running another Lungevity event with you!! Bring on Newark!
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a lot of kid to push around! I'm so impressed by double stroller moms!
ReplyDelete