The Apple Harvest Fest 5k 2010...

  Today my sister and I ran in the Apple Harvest Fest 5k together!  I have to be honest...this was probably the first time ever I was super relaxed on race day!  I woke up ready to go and feeling like what ever came it would be a great day!  We got to the race super early (which was great because we had to run home back home to pick up my sister's ID which she forgot and I was sure she would need in order to get her bib...although it turns out she didn't) and had plenty of time to take pictures and line up.

  Our main goal for this run was to beat our previous 5k time of 39:13, although my sister was hoping to beat the 37min mark (my prediction was that we would be somewhere in the 37 minute range but not before it).  There were probably about 100-150 people in this race and thus there were no timing chips...just a gun to start you off and a clock to let you know when you finished.  We started at the back of the pack (knowing that since we were running a 4/2 interval race we would end up there anyway.  However neither of us expected that at the half mile mark we would officially be dead last (It was a the strangest thing...we were running great, but I turned around and nobody else was there)!  At that moment I could tell my sister wanted to throw in the towel and quit...but I just kept trying to encourage her that we had to run our own race...it wasn't about anyone else but us...and that as long as we beat our previous best time we should be proud (all things that were pretty easy to say considering I knew eventually we would end up passing people)!

  Slowly but surely we passed one person, then two, then a few more.  We kept catching up to this one lady who was running alone and it was totally encouraging for me...like a sign that we were still in this  (I think in a sense we must have kept pushing her too because every time we got close to passing her out she'd kick it up a notch)!  By the time we finished we were no longer in last place and had beaten our previous time by a whole minute 35 seconds (our unofficial time was 37:38.....like I predicted)!

  I was proud of my sister for not giving up on herself...for pushing through her fear and her doubt and doing better than her best!  I also was pretty excited with myself in that I felt great this entire race! I was relaxed during the whole race and felt like I could have kept going and I felt like I had coached my sister when it would have been very easy to get discouraged!  Overall I was pretty happy with the day and super happy we did it!