What a Great Saturday!

It's been awhile since I've written anything. Mostly I chalk that up to being busy. The school year ended (2 more teacher days, but the student days are over), I went on an amazing trip to Boston with the fifth graders (I'd forgotten how much I enjoy Boston) & I squeezed in a weekend trip to New York City to spend time with a dear friend and her 4 kiddos. Great times, lots of laughs and amazing memories.

I have managed to keep up with exercising too. This week I did 3 bootcamp classes and ABS (Abs, Butt and Shoulders) class. Plus on Tuesday morning Lisa and I went running again. The week before I went to 1 bootcamp class and participated in a Derby Elementary tradition: The Cornfield Mile Run. My time for the cornfield mile (actually 1.2 miles) was 18 minutes, 17 seconds, not bad at all.

I'm still working on figuring out which days I will want to work out when bootcamp is no longer free for me. I love the 5:30 am workouts since by the time I am truly awake and alert the workout is over. Nothing like working out half-asleep. I also love the Tuesday, Thursday 4:15 classes. Hmmm....Maybe I just keep saving money and commit to 5 days a week of bootcamp. We'll see. I know I can run and join Lisa and Hailey for cardio days, so maybe I should only think about 3 days per week and work on getting my own routines in place on the off days.

Today was a PERFECT Saturday, blue sky, sunshine, warm temperature with a nice breeze and a 5K race. My very first race ever. Very exciting and a great feeling to get to the end.

Let's be clear about this: I NEVER expected in a million years to ever run anything. Even if I was being chased by a wild animal intent on making me a meal I didn't think I'd ever run. Running isn't easy, my left ankle is wrapped and it looks like I need to wrap my right one too at least for a little while. My knees are holding up well. The thing I have the most trouble with is my breathing, but even that is coming along and getting easier as I continue practicing. I need to learn patience.

I had some great friends to join me on the run this morning. Lisa, Jule, Angie, Dawn, Lisa and Hailey were amazing support. Hailey, Angie & Dawn actually were headed back to the Frontier Animal Shelter and crossed back over to stay with Lisa, Lisa, Jule and me. How wonderful is that?? Then Hailey and Lisa kept pace with me and encouraged me to run and not get discouraged by what I couldn't do, but to focus on what I could do. Hailey reminded me that 18 weeks ago I completely changed my life and it takes time for it to all come together and I have to focus on the success, not the things that are still hard.

So in the interest of focusing on the success I am THRILLED to report that we finished the 5K in 35 minutes. My goal was to finish in less than an hour, so I'd say I met that goal.

I'll be on the lookout for my next 5K...and the next one my goal is to run more of it. Not sure how far I ran today, but I know I ran more than I've run before. I'm not where I want to be yet, but I'm closer than I was yesterday.

Thanks for reading and here's a quote I found recently that I really like:

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined." ~Thoreau