I have signed up for the 5K walk several times, but I this was my first RFTC competitive run.  The atmosphere was magic.  There were so many women (50,000) and so much pink!  The whole race just made me happy.

The course was pretty easy with only 2 bridges and a few gentle upward slopes.  I ran hard and I didn’t stop.  I wanted to beat my time from 2 weeks ago and I succeeded.  I crossed the line in 25:04, thirty seconds faster than my last attempt.

One thing that was new for me was the crowd lining the streets cheering us on.  That made me feel good.  Also, there were firefighters.  Like, smoking hot firefighters at several of the intersections.  The scantly clad firemen were handing out pink beads.  At first, I was confused.  Was I supposed to do something for these beads?  Thankfully they were just handing them out, so I got three strands.  They almost slowed me down, but I kept going.

The first 300 received a medal and I came in 71st with a time of 25:04:23.  I am slowly getting faster and that makes me happy.

 After our race, the 5k walk kicked off.  Since I had a reunion at 11, I didn’t have time to do it again, but next time I will plan for that.  I also found my dream Jeep. Awesome sauce.

I was pretty excited to run the Bismarck BBQ Bash XC 5K because the starting line was about a mile from my driveway.  I was kind of sad when the school buses with junior high and high school runners pulled up.  Kids always make us older runners look bad, they are so effortlessly fast.  I just decided to run my race and try to better my 5K time.  I warmed up and got my mind right.

A cold front came through the night before and chilled the air nicely and it was about 48 when we all toed the line.  It felt so good, but my nose was dripping that clear, runny snot, so I just kept wiping it on my sleeve.  The race was nice.  It felt good to run with the kids.  A lot of them started out too fast and I was able to pass them towards the end.  I don’t care who you are, passing another runner feels good.

When I got to the finish line, I realized I came in second.  I asked who beat me and they pointed at this little girl.  Seriously, she didn’t even come up to my shoulder.  I GOT BEAT BY A 12 YEAR OLD!  Oh how embarrassing!  I’m not sure if my coming in second means I am really awesome or sad.

Ok, I am over that now.  I came in second.  I am proud. I bettered my 5K time by 10 seconds.  Here are the top 5 women:

Just ignore the ages of the other runners and check out my little trophy:

My sister-in-law, Amberlee and I got to run with my mother-in-law for her very first 5k. We had such a fun time and I am proud to say that my mother-in-law finished the whole race without walking. She ran the entire route!

We finished in 46:51 and we had a blast. The route was mostly downhill and I would recommend this race to first timers. It was a little warm at first, but as soon as the sun went down it was perfect. Also, when you run across the dam a nice breeze from the lake cools you down.

Here are some pictures from before, during, and after:

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