I Survived...

...and kicked some MAJOR booty while I was at it!

Today was the 10-mile race that I somehow talked myself into doing. We were lucky enough to have Callie and Cory come over and watch Jackson for us while we dragged our butts on post for the 7:30 meet time. 

I was super nervous about being the only walker/jogger and coming in last. I ran into a friend and decided that we would try to keep pace with each other and do intervals. My goal was to finish the race as close to 3 hours as possible.

I gave Aaron a kiss good luck and let him make his way to the front of the pack while I stayed towards the back, knowing I wouldn't need to be in front of half of the people there. 

We started out walking the first half mile to warm up before starting the first interval of jogging. As I found my pace I realized that I took longer strides then the two girls I was with. When we stopped to walk again I looked back and saw that I would have to wait for them to catch up to me to stick together. I made a decision that I was just going to do this for me and make my own pace. If they caught up to me awesome, if not I would be okay. 

I started to run again and decided that I would go as long as I could, aka not be out of breath. Surprisingly I passed the 1 mile marker and then the 2 mile marker. I had just run over a mile without stopping. HOLY @#$! Batman!! After realizing this I was pumped and just kept with it. 

My method was to run until I was out of breath and then walk until I could breath again. Well, I wasn't running out of breath. What ended up slowing me down was my feet. Since losing weight my shoes have become a little big and with my feet sliding around my toes were going numb. So crazy to think that my worst problem wasn't being tired, out of breath, or hurting. 

The miles slowly started to add up and then out of no where I was at the mile 5 marker. I was halfway done! Still pretty amped I flew through mile 6...and then the dull drums hit! Mile 6-7 stretched on FOREVER! My hip started throbbing and my feet started to bug me like they were blistering. I slowed way down and ended up walking most of this mile. By the time I made it to 7.5 mile water station I was worn out and dying of heat. We started the morning at 55 degrees and by this time it had to of been somewhere close to 75. I literally forced myself to push on because there were only 2.5 miles left and I HAD to finish!

Finally there was a light at the end of the tunnel as I saw the water tower on the parade field where the race started. I knew I wanted to run the last straight away and cross the finish line so I held off until the last turn. As soon as I turned and passed the MP car I picked it up to finish strong! After a couple strides my right calf started cramping really bad. I started walking to try to work it out. I knew it would happen, but didn't think it would happen so close to the end. I tried jogging again and just couldn't run through the pain. I limped along and tried to walk it out. 

As tears were forming from the pain, I saw Aaron loaded with our bag of drinks and protein bars making is way towards me. I didn't think he was going to come back for me like he did the 5k, it meant So much to me...even if it was only for the last 400m. I know how proud he was for attempting this race and he knew how important it was to me to just finish it. 

When we met he had a surprised look on his face. He asked how I was doing and if I had turned around early. With a dumbfounded look I said of course not! I asked what the time was and he said 2:15. I almost died because I couldn't of heard him right. After repeating it a couple times I realized that I was an hour ahead of my goal! Aaron had thought I had turned around to be coming in so early and was ready to hike back a couple miles to help push me to the end. 

Knowing I was so close to finishing ahead of  "schedule" I pushed myself to run through the cramping. I finished the race at 2:17!!! I could not believe it!!!!!! I know I have been working out a lot (zumba twice a week and Curves 3 times), but I didn't realize that those would help me run. I had a biggest loser moment as I was crossing the finish line and started getting teary eyed about how far I have come in the past year with my weight and the things I am able to do now. It just amazes me. By finishing this 10 mile race I now know that I can do anything!!!

We survived! Final times Aaron 1:39 and Krys 2:17!!

Ooh, I learned that one of Aaron's Sgts ran the race and finished pretty close to 2 hours. Totally boosted my ego more. I finished about 20 minutes behind a Sgt in the army. Holy Ba-Jesus!!!! Woot Woot...Doin My Happy Dance!!!!!!