Two weeks ago, I ran the Simsbury River Run. As you may know by now if you've read my past posts, my sport of choice is soccer. Running was always a past-time that helped condition me for upcoming soccer seasons, but I never hit the road just for the heck of it. It wasn't until I ran my first 5k race in high school that I realized the act of running could be fun. Every time I have signed up for a race this year, I've remembered the fun I had running the Manchester Road Race back many, many moons ago.
The River Run became a reality after I had a conversation about 5k races with a friend at a party. I was on the fence about running the race and so was she. Anne Marie explained she had just begun training and cautioned me she would be slow. I placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Did you read my past running post? I too am no runner, by any means!" We laughed and agreed to run the race together!
Time carried on in our busy mommy lives, and one day my husband came home with a message from a friend of mine he had bumped into while at the park with our son. "Dede wants to know if you are running the River Run?" (Oh crap!) I forgot to sign up, I thought to myself. So, I hopped onto Facebook and exclaimed to the social media gods that I was doing the race and tagged Anne Marie and Dede in the post. That way, I couldn't back out. The other neat thing that happened was another friend got inspired to join us, and our trio became a quartet!
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Race day finally arrived and I was ready (umm, kind of). The night before the River Run I went out for dinner and drinks with my Runitlikeamom blogger sisters, Patty and Sarah, and a friend, Erin. We had a great time, but I made a goofball decision to have just one more drink. That miscalculation turned out to be the not a good idea drink, because in the middle of the race my stomach got angry with me. (Ugh!) Meanwhile, my friends were doing awesome! Dede took off like a bolt of lightning during the race, as we cheered her on! My other friends Anne Marie and Julia, were running at a great pace, and here I was, getting sluggish. I pep-talked myself to "Runit" till the end, with my friends! The best part of the race was hearing my son and husband cheer me on! It gave me the surge of energy I needed to sprint through to the finish line. The three of us finished around the 37 minute mark, which we were very happy with!
After the race, we celebrated our running achievement at the local grille. We talked about how we supported each other leading up to and during the race, which helped us all cross the finish line. We clanked our water bottles and said a quick cheers to friendship.
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The day after the River Run, I woke up singing the song "With A Little Help From My Friends" from one of the greatest bands in the universe, the Beatles. Enjoy their compilation video I have attached below (and if you watch closely, you will see even the Beatles took the time to run a race!). If you are still on the fence about running a race, look for a friend to join you. It will make your running experience that much better! To also help you on your 5k race journey, read up on fellow blogger Kirsten Carew's weekly running program called "Follow Me To The Finish Line."
So, go sign up for a fun run in your area along with some of your friends, or if you have a race coming up, leave a comment and tell us about it!
