BYU Alumni Run 2011

And the morning finally arrived. The dreaded BYU Alumni Run 5k.

I had been looking forward to it all year but when it came to the two weeks before, I actually began to dread it. I just place so much pressure on myself and I knew if I didn't beat my previous 5k time I would be really disappointed. I also was in a workout rut where I just did not feel like exercising.

But I had already convinced my brother and sister-in-law to run it with me so I couldn't back out and they signed me up. So we packed up our kids and stayed the night at their house so we wouldn't have to drive out to Provo so early in the morning.

The morning of the race dawned early and here we are, the runners. I like to laugh at the different excitement levels in our faces.

Our kids didn't get much sleep and they were tired and cold, but I LOVED having them there when I finished. It makes reaching the finish line that much better. It feels good to have them participate in a part of me accomplishing a worthy goal and I hope they learn the value of exercise. Brigham did great watching them in the stroller as we all ran. He says he'll run the next one with me and I'm bound and determined to hold him to that!

I didn't know it at the time, but Brigham took pictures of Katrina and me as we ran the last leg through the finish line. Katrina's picture just cracks me up and I look like I'm about to keel over and die. Someday we'll look long and lean and glorious while running right?

The boring facts and numbers of the race: Kyle did AMAZING! He ran it in a smokin' 22 minutes putting him at 3rd in his division and 15th overall! That is amazing and blew me away. Katrina zoomed fast as usual and placed 2nd in our age group and came in 30th overall. I came in 9th in our division and was pleased with myself because I beat my old time by three minutes coming in at 29:34. I know I could have pushed harder at the end and next time I want to even smoke that number, but I was happy that I ran it in under a half hour. I came in 86th overall which is a twelve place improvement from last time with more people running it this year.

The first stretch of the race is this super long hill that completely trashed me last time I ran this race and I had been stressing about running that hill again for weeks. However, this time I only had to walk this teeny-tiny stretch of it. I was SO happy about that. 

Kyle and Katrina both won medals and after the awards, they gave their medals to Lydia who put them around her neck, said, "I love my medals SO much," and then proceeded to kiss them like the athletes do in the Olympics. I have no idea where she got that from but it was hilarious! 

Next we went and showered, rested for a bit, and then went to Macey's grocery store because it was Pumpkinfest and they were serving free homemade cream soda and root beer, along with games for prizes. 

When they announced it was time on the loud speaker, you were supposed to hurry and stand on one of the pumpkins around the store. If they called the number on your pumpkin and you were the first one there you got a prize. I was in the cheese aisle when they called for the pumpkins and so I ran as fast as I could for the one at the end of the aisle. I was almost there as two ladies rounded the corner and I could tell they were going to get there first so I jumped as hard as I could...and almost killed everyone. But huzzah! I got there first and I grinned at them as they stared at me in fright and went around. Brigham watched the whole thing happen and was a little embarrassed but I was just excited. Too bad they didn't end up calling number ten. 

I sent Brigham running around to different numbers a few times while we were there but we didn't win anything and we weren't able to find the witch balloon for an extra prize, but it was fun anyways.

After Macey's we went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch and then we headed home to watch the football game - well I watched it and Brigham slept through it. In his defense we were wiped from little sleep and and a long busy day with an early start. We all went to bed around 7:00pm that night.

I managed to catch a cute cute picture of the kids in their BYU outfits with their BYU balloons they got from the race that morning.

This picture is as awesome as our day was :)