I Ran a 5K.... and I LIKED it!

Last night, Makena and I headed to Wichita for a little family time, and to prepare for our 5K Race for the Cure today. It was fun having dinner with most of my immediate family, and with my cousin Ann and her daughter Hailey. Hailey is only 2 years older than Makena, so they get along really well and seem to sincerely look forward to seeing each other. Ann and I have been close for as long as I can remember, so seeing our girls together makes it all seem like it's all come full circle.

With the exception of 2009, our family has participated in the Race for the Cure for the past several years. My Aunt Kathi (my mom's sister, my cousin Ann's mom) passed away in 2003 after a long battle with breast cancer. We miss her an incredible amount, and this year has been especially hard on all of us. We NEEDED to do this race together, and feel the love, rather than being alone with the sadness. We all decorated pictures of Aunt Kathi and pinned them to our shirts, so everyone would see why we walk/run. My cousin Ann also made a picture to hang on the Memory Wall at the race. It was extremely hard to see that picture hanging there, and made us all very emotional before the race even began.

I used this year's race as a reason to do the Couch to 5K program. I have done 7 of the 9 weeks of training, but was able to complete the race! I admit that I even cried as we finished the race. The emotion was just too much to contain. My sister Jill ran with me the entire way, and we finished in 45 minutes. I realize this time isn't the best, but I was incredibly happy and proud to have made it the whole way without walking, slowing down or stopping. My brother Joey also ran, and made it much faster than us.... I hope to improve the time enough by next year to do the timed race, then walk the un-timed with the rest of the family. We are also hoping we can convince the rest of the men/boys in the family to race with us next year.

Here are a few pictures from our day, but I also invite you to see the rest in my Facebook album to the right.