Nicole's First 5K

We have a DOUBLE race report here thank you to Brooke for the idea ;)
First I will post Nicole's recap that she emailed me. This is her words :

So my alarm went off at 8am I rolled over and thought wow I feel refreshed I'm ready to do this race. Got up threw together my protein shake in the blender and texted Colleen. It took me about 10mins of being awake to realize omg I'm gonna run/walk 3.1 miles today outside lol I instantly got butterflies! I mean I've done 3 miles twice before but on a TM and as of recent hadn't been happy with my outdoor pace all I could think of was omg what if I'm dead last..how will that affect me? A part of me wanted to stay home make an excuse and not go but another part of me said really? You've never been a quitter don't start now. So I texted Colleen back and jumped in the shower. I knew I was going to have her there by my side for the push and Damian was coming as well and I knew between both of them I would not be lacking motivation from my two cheerleaders! They make me want to run and run hard..when I got to the race and met up with everyone the reality set in. Damian told me to warm up but in my mind I didn't know exactly HOW to do that..I'd never warmed up for a race before. So I stretched a bit and kinda said okay I think I'm good! Lol Colleen arrived and was like you warmed up she had already jogged around and I just started laughing and was like well not really..lol..so I did more stretching and felt pretty good. When the race started it took a moment to work through the crowd and find a pace. Looking back I probably should have walked my first .25 mile just to warm my legs up but instead we jogged. When I felt myself losing breath rapidly I slowed and walked a bit with colleen she was there asking me how I was doing and timing the intervals I knew the fit bee wasn't gonna go too easy on me! After I caught my breath we ran again we reached mile one in 15 mins. I was pretty pleased with that time actually took a moment for it to set in..we continued our race Colleen running beside me pushing me whenever I was starting to give way,at mile 2 was Damian waiting for us to cross so he could cheer us on..like I said a couple of great cheerleaders! He began running with us and finished the last mile run..between him and Colleen they kept pushing me and helping my breathing along. Even singing eye of the tiger for me! My favorite workout song when I feel ready to give up it always sets a fire in me!.. I am a heavy smoker at the.moment and it certainly didn't help any! I felt it today..time to quit?? As we got to the last tenth of a mile I could hear the crowd Colleen raced a bit in front to lead the way and Damian held back a bit while I raced in for the finish line. I wanted to just sprint in there as hard as I could but I'm a klutz and I all I kept thinking was don't trip don't trip! Lol..I crossed the line at 49:09..not too bad for a girl who never thought she'd run EVER! But it felt great I finished!!  and hearing Colleen and Damian cheering me on as I crossed the finish line was the icing on the cake. There's friends we like to have around and friends we need to have around and I hope I always need these two great ppl in my corner! Thanks guys and much love!

 There is Nicole getting her number on!

My quick recap of the day :)

Well after work this morning I headed out to Hingham for the Harvest 5K. I was worried because the weather has been crappy the past few days and I did not want Nicole's first 5K to be in the cold icky rain. But this morning the sun came out and it turned out to be a gorgeous day!! This course was simply beautiful a lovely fall run. I think I will be back at this park next weekend for my training run. I just loved it that much.

See all the leaves and trees and pretty colors? This is why I love New England and why fall is my favorite season :) OK onto the recap!

SO I arrived just in time to grab a number and then run back to my car because the rookie racer thought they would have a credit card machine at the race table ;) But we got her all set and I told her to warm up and stretch more :) We headed over to the start line and away we went!

It was a great small race. So relaxed and I liked that a lot. I was surprised it was even chip times for runners. That is always nice if you are competing ;) But today for the first time this whole entire year I was not racing to compete for a new PR I was there to support my friend Nicole and it was fun! I loved getting her text messages asking, what should I eat? What am I thinking? It reminded me of how I felt last year at this same time doing my first 5K and it made me smile inside. You see Nicole is moving forward along her journey to get healthy and I cannot help but admire her sheer will and strength to push forward and get healthy. I love supporting her and she keeps me inspired too!

We started running and I think she did too much too quick because she got winded and got pissy quick. LOL she yelled at me quite a few times and I reminded her that before the race she demanded me to push her. What is a bee to do but push her student along? I had on my watch and I made her jog every 3-4 minutes for 2 minutes. I let her walk when she needed to but I also knew she needed some pushing hehe

We got to the 1 mile mark in 15 minutes! That was a great pace. I was proud of her. We kept going and she was funny everytime there was a little hill Nicole would say oh theres an incline! I was like yes dear we have many inclines outside hahaha (she is a treadmill trainer the incline verbage showed that ;) But she did great and kept going!

She was working hard, I knew this! She kept looking for the water stop and I promised it was coming. Then she wanted a porta potty haha! I let her know we do not have those for 5Ks and she needed to hurry up and finish. At mile 2 we saw Damian and he was cheering us on and joined in the race to help us bring Nicole home!

 Luckily the water stop came up just after mile 2 and Nicole goes I will take 2 of those! She took one and drank it and dumped the other one over her head. It was a classic moment LOL

She was getting cranky so I knew it was time for the hyper Colleen to come out! I got Eye of the Tiger on my phone and Damian was belting out the lyrics! I started dancing and jogging along and Nicole yelled at me to get next to her because she was going to run me over!! LOL it was pretty funny.

We got to mile 3 and I started cheering for her! I told her the finish line was near and that she could finish strong. She started running again and decided she would jog the whole way into the finish line. In my normal loud fashion I ran ahead and started yelling and chanting. You see when someone runs their first I make sure the crowd at the finish line knows and starts helping me bring them in ;) so I was yelling and singing lets go Nicole!!! Nicole is finishing her first 5K! There was a woman standing with a megaphone at the finish line and she was more than happy to help me out ;) I got there just in time to snap the great shot of the day, Nicole crossing the finish line!!!

 It was great! She finished in 49:09 I was beaming with pride!!!! I knew all along she could do it but I also knew she needed to do it to believe it for herself.

Damian was there with his tablet trying to snap pics we cannot leave him out haha

 We were having fun at the end just joking and celebrating with Nicole. You know what these 2 have come so far this year. They keep cheering for me and celebrating with me at my races and they are racing and building up their distance and speeds too. I love their motivation and support and I do not think they realize how much I appreciate their support. We are the 3 runkateers :) 3 ex couch potatoes proving that it is never EVER too late to wake up and say F you being obese and unhealthy I am going to become a runner and take control of my own destiny!