Yesterday was quite a whirlwind!!!!
You may recall how last week, Kathryn and I did the
Cooper River Bridge Run with the Kenyans. Then we decided,
hey that was so much fun, let's do another 10k a week later!
So we signed up for
this race around Southpark.
We thought it would be relatively flat (well, flatter than that stupid bridge!) and also, Kathryn is becoming addicted to running races because she enjoys the free t-shirts, haha.
Ok, so we show up for this race and, unlike last time, only had to stand out in the cold for 20 minutes (thank you, Travis, for dropping us off!). I made Kathryn start in the front with me, which she later did not appreciate (sorry girl)! When the gun went off, I took off running down the first hill super fast--my first mile was like 6:08! Yikes, Mindy. Let's slow down a little bit? I noticed that I was near the front of the pack and there were only a few other girls ahead of me! Then we started to have more uphills and I started getting slower. The half marathoners split from us around the 3 mile mark, and I realized those girls who were ahead of me were running the half marathon and not the 10k! How they can run 13.1 miles at a sub 6:30 minute pace is beyond me. I crossed the 5k split at like 19:something and realized there were nooooo other girls in front of me! I was winning!!! I was running in between these two guys like a little running sandwich, and they really helped push me to keep up with them! Then around mile 4, I saw this girl coming up behind me. She eventually passed me and I tried to stay with her as long as I could, but I was dying. The last hill (the one I had sprinted down the first mile) just about killed me and she got further and further ahead. OMG....let me tell you about that last hill. I was having horrible flashbacks to the Bridge Run. It was that bad. I almost puked! I finally saw the finish line and crossed it at 41:07! So about 30 seconds faster than last week! Which was great considering how tired my body felt the entire race (I guess that's what happens when you decide to run two 10k's in a week)! The girl who beat me (only by like 8 seconds....I didn't realize I was that close to her) came up to say good job, which was really nice. While I was waiting for Kathryn, the two guys I had been running with came up to me to tell me good job also. My favorite part was one of the guys said he had recognized me from the gym and knew I ran fast because he had seen me on the treadmill! Ha! I'm famous!
Kathryn finished 4 MINUTES faster than last week....that girl is a rock star, I tell you!
So once we had both finished, we were freezing (again, no space blankets....come on race people, what is up with that?!) but I had to wait around because we thought I may have won an award! Luckily, I live right by Southpark, so we went to my house super fast, grabbed sweatshirts and came back to the race so I could get my prize!
While I am waiting to see what the deal was, I get this text...
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ohhhhhh just my best friend, and lover of this blog, getting engaged!!!! When they announced that the race results would be revealed in 10 minutes, I quick called Natalie to freak out say congrats!!!! I am sooooooo excited for her and can't wait to be her matron of honor (already freaking out about the speech though)!
Then they announced the results....I got second place out of all the women (16th overall) and first in my age group! They gave out cash prizes for the top three male and female finishers, which means I won $150!!!! Pretty sweet.
{me with my cash money!}
Ok, so after placing second in a race where I was super tired and didn't even know how I was going to pull myself together to finish and THEN my best friend getting
engaged, the rest of the weekend was pretty low key. I spent it stretching, icing, going through my old wedding stuff and pinning ideas to my newest Pinterest board,
Nataleee's Getting Married. I am totally loving this
NEW PROJECT!!! And yes, in case you were wondering, I
AM bringing back Wedding Wednesdays for this occasion!! I've already listed about 40 wedding related topics to write about, so get excited!!!
Congrats Natalie and Brian!!!!!