Fall Running!

After the sweat fest that is summer, it's always nice when fall arrives and it's a little cooler!  There are tons of races to choose from this time of year, but I had signed up for the Prairie Fire back to back challenge on New Years Eve when fees were super low.  I signed up for the spring 5K and fall half. Training went much better this year.  Last year we had to put Jasmine to sleep just a few weeks before the race.  After that, my IT band flared up and I just didn't feel like running at all.  Because of that, I didn't finish quite like I'd hoped but it was still a great experience.  

This year, training went much better even though I did start to feel a bit burnt out towards the end.  I was a little nervous at the starting line but having friends with me always helps!

 Eric and the kids really got into their sign making this year and spent a lot of time the day before making some super funny signs!

They were there cheering for me at mile 2, 5 and 8, then met me at the finish line!  Seeing them every few miles is such an encouragement!

Since my IT band managed to behave itself this year, I was able to take off over 16 min from last year.  Afterwards, I was feeling fairly certain I would not be running the half again next fall, especially since I'd gotten so burnt out.  Monday morning though as I rolled my sore body out of bed, I thought....I can do that faster!  ;-)

The next weekend was the Winfield Food Pantry 5k.  Katie and I did this together last year for her first 5K and I think it will become a tradition that we always run this together, just the two of us!

She wanted to us to be "twinsies" so we both wore black tights and pink sweatshirts.  She did awesome and improved her time almost 10 min from last year!