Woot. Woot.

I am so excited about my run today.  I participated in a 5K at my parent's parish and guess what... I placed first in my age group!!!!  I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!! What is even better than that is I brought my time down from my last race.  Today I finished in 24:44, bringing my time down 3:14 from my last race 3 weeks ago.  I am so happy w/ this time.  When I finished I just kept saying to Jack and my parent's- "Did you see my time?  Did you see my time?"

I wasn't sure if I would place b/c it is just so hard to determine people's ages.  When I first started the race I was trying to make sure I would be in contention to place.  I was running near women trying to figure out their age.  "College sorority t-shirt.  Too young."  "Some gray hair.  Too old."  But doing this was driving me crazy!  I also picked a runner to keep my eyes on.  She was cute.  Looked to be in great shape and maybe just a little older than me.  I just figured I would keep her in my sights.  Not follow her, but just make sure I could see her.  Well that backfired when at the first mile marker she started walking!  I thought "Geesh, Sarah. Get it together!"  So at mile one I decided to just run my own race w/ myself.  I didn't care if I placed or not- my goal was to improve my time.  

Some of the positive things I said to myself while running really helped me today.  "You are prepared for this." "You were made to do this." "This little 3.1 miles is nothing compared to all the work you have done to get you here."  Around mile 2 LL Cool J came onto my ipod rapping "I'm Gonna Knock You Out".  In my head I imagined myself at my last race and sang that to myself and my time on that day. "I'm gonna knock you out."  It made me laugh out loud to do this!  All in all I am so happy w/ my race and my time.  It was a lot of fun.  And check out the bobble-head trophy!