Wow! I Actually Finished

I've lived to tell the tale of my first 5K - and what a sordid tale it is! (Just kidding - well, maybe I'm kidding and maybe I'm not...) We ran in the Jingle Bell Run on Saturday benefiting arthritis.

When we were ready to walk to the starting location, I couldn't find John and Michael (the friends running with me.) I was starting to panic, because there was no way I was running 3 miles by myself without music. Then, they came out of the bathroom - in COSTUME!

John was dressed as Elvis - wig, cape, glittery bellbottoms. Michael was dressed as - well I'm not sure what, but it involved a long curly wig and tinsel wrapped around his wrists. It was hilarious!

div>Thank goodness I had them with me - 'cause they made the whole thing entertaining. John sang Elvis songs the whole way - even taking requests from fellow runners. I think people were a little startled by Michael - they kept looking at him out of the corner of their eyes to see if his hair was real.

At one point a little girl dashes around us, so she could be by her dad. We overhear her saying "I just want to get away from that man." Not sure if she wanted to get away from John or Michael - but it was definitely one of the two! People were running with dogs too - one of them even nipped at Michael's ankles. (I should've had dogs nipping at my ankles - I would've run faster!) And, during the home stretch, they kept trying to get me to picture some of my co-workers naked, which definitely took my mind off running. Blech!


This was really rough for me - since I'm still a running newbie. I got so hot, I stripped off most of my clothes as I ran - until I ran out of things to take off. I seriously thought about becoming one of those 'sports bras as a top' women but decided against it. Mainly because I was wearing two.

I almost ran all of it - had to walk for about a block around 2.5 miles because I couldn't catch my breath. But at the very least, I ran 3 miles, which is way more than I've ever done before in my entire life. We finished in 36 minutes - definitely not speedy, but it could've been worse. I've never been more relieved to see a finish line in my life! The three of us are in the picture above - check out John's bellbottoms and cape!