"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." Deuteronomy 4: 6-9

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Florida Beaches 5K

Our last activity of our fun weekend was the Florida Beaches 5K. Matt had his eye on this 5K for our first race because it was at the beautiful Ft. Desoto Park near St. Petersburg on the beach. We have been running 3+ miles almost every night for weeks, and felt like we were ready to give it a go! We got up at 4:45am to drive about an hour to the race. The boys stayed at Tim and Sharon's while we went. It was pitch dark outside, and we couldn't believe ALL of the people that were there for the half marathon and 5K! I just have to brag about my incredibly supportive hubby for a minute. Running a 5K has been on my "to do" list for awhile now. He has pushed me to run and has been so supportive running with the boys and I, and I was SO excited that he was running with me on Sunday! Running has become something we enjoy doing together, which I thought would never happen, and I am just so grateful that he wanted to do this. On a funnier note, these racers are hardcore people. The runners who were running the half-marathon were running in the parking lot before the run even started! And they were jump roping too...in the pitch dark...and poor Matt got smacked in the face with one right before the race started! :) All of the runners ready to go... The sun started to come up right when our race started! Matt and I positioned ourselves in the middle of the pack thinking we were probably average at this. The course was beautiful, and we even ran alongside the beach with the sun rising at one point. There's something about being surrounded by hundreds of other runners to keep you on your toes. Not to mention your competitive side tends to come out just a bit! Matt made sure we passed certain people and kept up with others. He was an awesome running partner. We actually finished with a better time than we normally do. We finished at 29 minutes and 45 seconds, and in the top 25%! We were exhausted, especially after sprinting to the finish line!
Here is a view of the ocean at Ft. Desoto... My "reward" for all of that training was a yummy homemade chocolate peanut butter pie from the best Amish restaurant in Sarasota!!! We are looking forward to our next 5K in the near future and might even sign up for a half marathon within the year...we will see! A couple of weeks after our race, I received this medal in the mail! I guess I finished 3rd female in my age range. Pretty neat!

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