Ran with my dog. This was my first 5K, even though I've run 2 marathons and lots of other races...I had just never done an official 5K before!

I am not sure how many people were running, maybe like 60 or so? Anyway I started at the back of the pack because Penny was getting nervous being so close to so many people. She LOVES people and I think she was honestly about to explode with having so many people around that she was not allowed to interact with!

After the race started I started passing people. I wasn't planning on being one of the best runners or anything, I mean let's face it, I'm pretty slow as a general rule. But as I was passing I realized a lot of people were just going slow. Maybe they were just doing it more for fun than for anything else, I don't know.

Saw my 11-year-old foster son, D, when he turned around at the 1/2 mile mark (he was running the 1 mile). He was a few steps behind the first place runner! That was pretty cool.

When I got closer to the turn-around for the 5K I started watching for women...and the ones that I saw were not that far ahead of me. I actually thought the first place woman was only maybe 20-30 seconds ahead of me! I decided well...what the heck, maybe I could podium at this race!

So I started to dig deeper. One by one, I picked off all of the women ahead of me. As we rounded the home stretch I was pretty sure I was in the first place for women. I was feeling pretty good - I mean really, I've never won anything except age group awards. If I could be the first woman overall, that would pretty much make my year!

With probably .2 or .3 miles left I looked at my watch and I was at 24 or 25 minutes. I was going way faster than I had planned on. Then suddenly, Penny stopped. To take a poop. In the middle of the race. DANG IT. I tried to encourage her forward, and she wasn't having it. Girl had to go!

One by one, I watched all of the women I had passed pass me back, as I was waiting for my dog to get done. She took several minutes to poop. I did manage to pass back one of the women that passed me while I was waiting, but I ended up I think 7th overall for women. I did find out there was one woman ahead of me at something like 21 minutes, but if I could have kept my place I would have gotten second overall!

I am pretty disappointed. I mean I'm over it now, and I think I got less than 30 minutes (but not 100% sure). I feel pretty robbed and I REALLY want to get my revenge on the 5K!!!

Not bring my dog. :)

Ate pizza, felt sorry for myself for a few minutes, and hung out with the kids and my husband. :)


My dog! Duh!


Good race for the first one! It was pretty much what you would expect for a small race - but I would do it again next year! :)