The "Not-So-5K" Race Report

Yesterday was the "Soles for Soles" 5K, and I was very excited to be on a team with Sig and my sister Kristi. We had a surprise addition to the team - my 5 yr. old niece Kacie - which kind of explains the "Not-So-5K" part.

Preparation actually started the day before, when Kristi and I picked up the race packets, then Sig and I drove all over town searching for pink shirts for us to wear (this event was benefiting breast cancer research). We finally found these AWESOME pink camo shirts (and on sale, too!). I also found some pink ribbon wristbands at a sporting goods store.

Go Team Ta-Ta!!

 We had originally planned to walk the 5K and see if we could break our last time of 00:53:00. Kacie brought her bike to ride along with us, but the streets were uneven so she didn't feel comfortable riding it and ended up doing the walk instead. We realized pretty quickly that her little legs probably couldn't handle a fast-paced 5K, so we decided as a team to do the 1 mile walk instead.

Now, if you recall, the last 5k Sig and I did was kind of a disaster. We literally got up off the couch one day and decided "Hey! Let's do a 5k!", then got our butts kicked by an elderly couple pushing a baby stroller (and yes, a baby was in the stroller). We did absolutely zero preparation, we in terrible shape, and had no idea what we were getting into. This time was different - we've been working hard to lose weight, have been going to the gym and walking, and we felt like we were a lot more prepared.


Our decision to do the 1 mile instead wasn't a difficult one - we were not out to win anything, we just wanted to do this thing together and have fun.

Kacie was having a hard time keeping up...

...so Mom came up with a temporary solution

We were ALSO determined not to come in last, and I'm happy to say we were among the first walkers to finish. As we were coming to the corner before the finish line, my sister noticed the first runners coming in a ways behind us. We decided to start running as we rounded the corner, and Sig turned to the walkers behind us and said "Come on everybody, fake it!" and THEY started running, too. Don't worry, we came clean at the finish line! We finished in 18 minutes.

Showing our support

Participant ribbon given to all walkers

 We hung around a bit after the race because there were supposed to be activities for kids, but all they had was a bouncy house and a face painter. Kacie got her face painted, but there was some punk kid in the bouncy house who was playing too rough so we didn't want Kacie to go in there.

She doesn't look too sure about this

The end result - not bad!

Kacie was getting tired and we were all hungry, so we left and had post-race tacos.

It was a fun day, and I'm excited about next weekend's 5k (benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation). We're supposed to dress up as our favorite superhero, so that should make for interesting pictures!