2015 Louisiana Marathon

I have always had the desire to run or become a "runner". People who classify themselves as "runners" always seem to be happy, healthy, and oddly super pumped about running.  Clearly I must be missing out on something for all these people to willingly and excitedly run miles and miles and miles and miles...for fun. With the purest of intentions, I placed "running" on my bucket list...and so it remained...year after year. My biggest reasoning for never starting to run was the easily blamed "time". But really...I can't possibly wake up any earlier and running in the dark after the kids go to bed just seems like the beginning scene of a "Law and Order: SVU" episode. I continued to look upon the social media statuses of my adventure-loving friends with jealousy as they posted running times, post-race photos with awesome medals, and, of course, their hot and healthy bods!

This past December something clicked and I just got a "bee in my bonnet.". Like my boy Forest, I just started running. I ran on the weekends and every day during the Christmas break. It was fantastic and oddly satisfying. I followed along with the Couch to 5K app but instead of dedicating three days a week, I just picked it up when I could. I recognize this isn't the best approach to training for anything...but whatever, it's not like I'm actually training for a race! That would be ludicrous...

Two days later, as if blinded by a moment of sheer endorphin takeover, I signed up for the Louisiana Marathon: 5K...which was taking place in two weeks. Keep in mind...at this point, I hadn't actually run, jogged, or even walked the distance of a 5K! What was I thinking???? 

The weekend before the race, I thought "hey, maybe you should see what that distance feels like, dummy!". So off I went through the neighborhood...I jogged the first mile, walked the second, and jogged the remaining. I survived and it only took me 43 minutes. After a quick Google search, I discovered that though this wasn't the best or even average time...whew, I wouldn't completely embarrass myself. 

Because the race was on my birthday weekend, my wonderful sister volunteered to run with me to motivate and cheer me on...even when I had to walk...which I honestly anticipated to be a majority of the distance. I didn't have a ton of faith in myself and I think she would admit, she didn't have a ton of faith in me either!

Race morning arrived and I was stoked beyond imagine! My entire family was there and Sarah had brought me a new running outfit! Until the day before I had no idea it was taboo to wear the race's shirt to the race...so glad Sarah set me straight and outfitted me properly for the event! Everyone cheered Sarah and I on as we drove away to tackle our first 5K! How cute were we...

We arrived downtown and it felt as if the entire city was there as well. It was packed! There was an excitement in the air that I just can't adequately describe. Excitement mixed with nervousness and we had 30 minutes to kill...so naturally, we took photos of ourselves.

As 7:30am approached, we made our way to the starting line. We placed ourselves smack in the middle of the crowd. The music was going, the crowd was pumped, and before we knew it...the cannon sound and OFF WE WENT!

I'm not sure if it was the high of race day, the sheer amount of people, or the extensive training (ha!), but I was loving every minute of it! When we hit mile one, my plan of walking the middle portion wasn't necessary...we kept going! Before I knew it, we were approaching mile two and still hadn't slowed to a walk! The only hiccup was when we started going back over the bridge on the path...which was uphill. We walked for about 30 seconds and picked it back up when going down hill and kept that pace for the remainder of the race.

As we approached the finish line, we found ourselves swept up in the music and an enthusiastic crowd cheering on all the runners...and before we knew it...we crossed over! 38 minutes and 13 seconds...perfectly mediocre and average! 

Honestly, this was a huge cross off the bucket list and I'm genuinely proud of myself for completing my first race! I'm actually looking for another one in the near future AND have already signed up for the 2016 Louisiana Marathon 5K! I totally get the hype of running and can say that I'm officially hooked!