Getting Ready for My First Race!

Sorry for the lack of blogging lately, but I promise I’ll make up for it today…this will be the first of several posts as I get you all caught up on the running news in my life. :)

Getting ready for my first official race was SO exciting!! First, I went out for a ‘practice run’ on Thursday, April 24th. I went around the usual 5K Home Loop (which is actually a little more than a 5K distance). Aragorn (my Garmin) says I completed 3.28 miles in 50:33 with an average pace of 15:25. This was a great run for me, and really just an opportunity to get my body prepared to do the same distance on Sunday.

Andria and Chino arrived on Friday to get ready for our Race Weekend. We talked almost nonstop about running and racing and all of it! Saturday we drove up to OKC to take in the Expo and pick up our running packets/goody bags. This was my first running expo as well as Bobby’s first and we were ecstatic. We first went all the way to the back where we got our racing bibs. Bobby and Andria also picked up their Champion Chips here, but since my 5K wasn’t a timed event I didn’t get a chip. Next we got our official t-shirts and goody bags, which was very cool. I kinda wanted to look through my bag right away, but I also knew I had a whole bunch of booths to explore. :) So, we all set off! Sometimes sticking together, sometimes splitting off to check out different booths and exhibits on our own, we all had fun.

Bobby got some Brooks running clothes to match his shoes, as well as some extra Gu Gel. Andria finally got what she had really been wanting since her first marathon in January – a hat with the 26.2 logo on it. It’s lavender and really cute! She was very excited as I’m sure I will be when that time comes for me. Chino even had fun when he found some free pancake samples at the Expo. At this booth he learned that the First Methodist Church in OKC would be serving a free pancake breakfast during the race. In fact, one of the volunteers at the Expo said the church would be only a block away from the Finish Line and he would be able to stay warm indoors and watch the TV coverage of the race while eating free food – this made him a very happy camper!

As for me, I bought my very first Bondi Band! Andria had highly recommended them to me so I chose a pretty, light blue one which says ‘5K’ with a circle around it. It knew it would be perfect for my first race and for all the future 5K’s I’ve already signed up for in the coming months. I also got a SPIbelt, or a Small Personal Item belt, which basically wraps around your waist and is just big enough to hold all those little necessities one needs when out on a run – your ID, cell phone, house key, etcetera. It’s great when you don’t have any pockets, which I frequently am without.

After a couple hours of exploring we were ready to go and especially ready to eat some lunch. We went to Olive Garden, one of our absolute most favorite restaurants. We often go there when Andria and Chino visit, but at least this time the need to carboload was the perfect excuse. :) Later that night we all explored our goody bags and studied up on where we were able to park on race morning, where the corral was, how our family could track our progress, etcetera. It’s all a very big deal, and just goes to add to the excitement and anxiety we all already felt.

We went to sleep early after setting out our outfits and running gear, trying to think of everything possible we might need and trying to wrestle with the nagging question of ‘Am I forgetting something???’.

I know I slept great, but then again my race would require only 3.1 miles – that’s 10 miles less than Bobby and Andria would be doing. On Sunday we literally woke up well before the crack of dawn. I don’t remember when exactly we got up, but I know it was early enough that it would have been more typical of Bobby and I to still be awake at that hour rather than for us to have actually been waking up at that hour. Though I’m not a morning person I was very excited and it was this excitement that kept me positive. Once we were all ready we set out the door and drove up to OKC in rainy, yucky weather.

Did the rain clear out? Did the race go well? Read the next post to find out…