5K Race Day!

Sunday was the day; the day I ran my first 5K road race.

And I KICKED BUTT!
I finished in 42 minutes, and ran the entire thing without walking at all! I never, ever thought that I would be able to run 5 kilometers, and I definitely never thought I would want to. But a few weeks ago I got an email about my school's Couch to 5K program and thought "I'm not working yet. I have the time. Exercise is good. Why not?"

So I started training 8 weeks ago by running three 90 second increments and walking in between. Believe it or not, I struggled to run those 90 seconds. I was so out of shape. But I gradually lengthened my running time and shortened the walking like the program instructed and it became easier. By week 6 I could run for 25 minutes! However, I knew that I ran too slow to cover 3.2 miles (or 5 kilometers), so I started running at home for distance instead of time. The first time I ever ran the whole 5K was on Friday, and it took me 52 minutes. I mean, I was really slow, but at least I knew I could run it without walking. And that was great motivation to keep going on race day.

Race Day. I was number 5!
Also, it was freezing cold.
Lots of people ran in sweatshirts.

 

I was surprised by how many people showed up to run! I dropped to the back of the pack pretty early, but that was ok with me. There were people of all different abilities, like experienced runners (you could tell who they were because they had professional running outfits and ipods on their arm bands), mothers pushing kids in strollers, elders who walked, and even a Fitchburg State ROTC member who ran in his combat gear!

 

I got a big surprise in the first few minutes when I saw my family cheering from the sidewalk! I didn't think they would be there! They lined up to give me high-fives and screamed words of encouragement, which made me laugh. A minute later I saw the rest of my family; grandparents, aunts and uncles ringing cow bells, whooping and cheering for any stranger who passed by :) Even from a distance they pumped me up and I ran faster, haha. Apart from the volunteers directing traffic, my family were the only people who cheered along the route. They are AWESOME! I love how supportive they are of everything I do, and I know they made the other runners happy as well. Thank you guys!

My own personal cheering section.

They could make a surprising amount of noise!

 

Waiting in the cold with coffee. What dedication.

 

Some of the people in front of me would run in short bursts and walk in between, but I set a pretty steady pace. One girl would start sprinting again whenever I caught up to her, haha. I tried not to feel bad that I was being beaten by those who were walking, but remembered that by running I was accomplishing something I never expected myself to do!

I had to run past my family twice, so after the second time they all jumped in their cars and drove past me to the finish line, yelling out their windows along the way. It wasn't hard to start sprinting towards the end; I was surprised by how much energy I had left! No flailing arms like the marathon commentators talk about, haha. Looking back, I probably could have pushed myself a little bit harder along the way, buuuuut I didn't care too much about my time. I was just happy I did it!

Crossing the finish line at 42 minutes.

I was definitely pumped up on adrenaline. I ran 13 minute miles!

In support of the people affected by last week's Boston Marathon, my aunt penned a new motto for us "runners" in the family:

Boston Strong, Barrows Strong

 

Big thanks to my amazing family for coming to support me and all the other runners! You're the best!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter Sunday filled with candy and family and egg hunts! I know I did. I think Easter is the happiest holiday of all because the church music is full of "Rejoice" and "Alleluia!"s, there's a humongous ham dinner, and best of all, there are a few good old-fashioned egg-hunts. Thankfully I have lots of young kids in the family, so there are plenty of eggs to be hidden (and even a few to be found by a big sister).

Here is this week's Easter cake!

I tried to experiment and make some new flowers and made some eggs, too!

I didn't level the cake this time because I didn't want to waste the excess (and I didn't feel like eating it).

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lot of pink and purple frosting left over from my last class with Jessica, so I tried to finish it all when decorating this cake. Unfortunately, the frosting NEVER. RUNS. OUT. I swear it's a magical frosting that just keeps replenishing itself. Finally I gave up trying to use as much of it as possible, and told my sister she could have it. She's a good baker and I'm sure she'll find a good use for it. Although I'm sick of eating cake after having it four weeks in a row. What a ridiculous first-world problem!