To summarize the Denver Mother’s Day Festival 5K in one word: HOT. It was really, really hot.
The night before the race proved to have little to no sleep. Had too much to eat sushi, that I was MORE than happy to able to eat them, so I’m not complaining, just saying: I didn’t sleep last night because of my stomach being full. I had a bad feeling about this race from the start.
Ember decided to do 5K with me this morning which it was her first race of 5K! When we arrived there and we were a little late so we had to rush to start since everyone already started running so we ran through the “Start”. The only thing that gives me anxiety about Ember because it’s her first time.
After we passed the start line we slowed down to do maybe a 200 yard jog/warm up. It sucked. A few minutes I was an anxious mess. I couldn’t stop listen to Ember’s complaining by tell me to run! Typical pre-5k for me. I never get like this with Ember front of me. I have no idea why. The competition, perhaps?
So, after 200 yards, if not more, Ember and I tried not to get caught up in the crowd, but as always my excitement took over. As we rounded the corner at around 1/4 mile I looked down at Ember she is behind me. ACK! SLOW DOWN NICKI! This was a disaster waiting to happen (and I was right). I tried to slow down and take some patience to walk/run with Ember as she is just 6 years old. But it took a good 1/2 mile to get our pace together.
A little past the one mile mark, I hit the wall, hard. At one mile, isn’t that ridiculous? Might I mention, to give myself a “little” credit, the temperature was already in the 70’s, with pounding sun. It was hot, and my front legs hurts. And I’m just plain out of shape with no stretching. I stopped for a second to walk, when Ember grabbed my hand. She said “Hey, you can do this! Come on run”. And so I did. I immediately spewed off my “excuses” for why I stopped, but I’m sure Ember didn’t care. She just told me I could do this, and I believed her. Having a daughter next to me was a lifesaver.
My legs felt painful and we had to walk. We ran walked the last .75 of a mile. I had to stop because both of my legs was hurting so I had to do some stretching real good and Ember told me she wants to give it up because it’s so hard. I felt defeated.
So we keep it up in positive and we crossed the finish with our hands holding at 49:08. Not bad for a 6 years old daughter. Yay!
As much as I was very pleased with Ember being on my side in race. I still managed to finish our race with my spin splint legs. I’m glad we went together. I mean, a bad day at running is better than a good day at work… or something like that. Right?
Happy Mother’s Day to you all out there! Oh yes! Ember wanted to do another 5K Race yay.
