My first 10K.

I did it! I achieved my goal. I ran and finished a 10K with my big sis!

Sachi has turned into a crazy running lady this year. She started training at around the beginning of the summer in order to run a 10K and finished with a half marathon. I was so inspired by her so I decided I wanted to try something too. I asked for her advice and she didn't even hesitate to jump in with me! So she found us a 10K that was about 4 weeks away. I was scared out of my mind with only 4 weeks of training. It may sound like a long time for some of you, but it definitely didn't seem like it. This summer was insanely busy with both working at Su Casa 6 days a week and shooting or editing for my photography business, so I put a lot of things on the back burner, exercise being one of them. Going from no exercise for 2 1/2 months to running everyday was really a challenge, but I knew I had to keep it up to make sure I could run the 6 miles at the race. I'm the kind of person who needs reassurance to be able to do anything, so I wanted to be able to train running the 6 miles sometime before the actual race.

Nope. Never happened.

We got to the day of the race and I was so nervous! The farthest I had run was 5 miles with DJ and even then he had to pull me along and keep his hand on my back to keep me going on the last mile. So thinking about doing another mile on top of that...oy vey. The entire drive there I kept having doubts and being so negative, "...can I really do this? Can I run 6 miles? Holy crap, I should be able to do 6 freaking miles, that's not even hard for lots of people...people run marathons! Why can't I do 6 miles?! Ugh this is so embarrassing!" ...stuff like that. Anyway. I was psychin' myself out. 

Finally we get to Thanksgiving Point and oh. my. heck. ITS FREEZING!!! And we had gotten there a bit early too, so we were outside letting our bodies freeze for about 25 minutes before the race started. Smart Mari. Smart. (Not livin' up to my nickname, huh dad?)

When the announcer says we're only a few minutes away from starting, we go to get in the line. I was thinking we'd be in the crowd, but then Sachi turns to me and says we should be at the front! Of course I just follow because at this point I think I couldn't process things clearly because, one, it was too early, two, it was too cold, and three, the only thing I kept thinking was 'I am so stinkin' nervous'. 

"30 seconds ladies!"

AH! I don't know why but I turned to Sachi and said, "I need to bite something!" Weird, I know.

"10 seconds!"

Again, I turned to Sachi and said, "Okay, I really need to bite something!!"

**BANG**!!

And so it began. 

I won't bore you with all my thought processes during my run, but I can just tell you, I couldn't have done it without my big sis by my side. Yeah she probably could have run a lot faster than I was running, but she stuck with me keeping me motivated. She was my moral AND physical support -- On the last mile, she pushed me from behind to help me keep going. And when I'd start falling behind, she'd grab my hand and pull me forward. I made it the whole race without walking, which I hadn't done in any of the longer runs when I was training! So that was huge for me. I'm so glad I have a big sister who cares for me and pushes me to do better! 

Final Results: 

I finished 22nd out of 80 in my age group, and overall, 58th out of 294!