athletic me

I did it. I did it in under an hour and a half. I did it in precisely 1 hour, 23 minutes and 15 seconds. And I didn't get sick. And I didn't fall in the river. AND I'm actually pretty sure I want to do it again!

This past Saturday Blair, Melissa, Dominique and I drove down to Charleston for the 2010 Cooper River Bridge Run. And none of us vomited or shat ourselves. After some ridiculous girliness in the car and the LONGEST WAIT EVER for our dinner Friday night (how long does it take to make pasta, seriously...)and waking up at the ungodly hour of 5:00am we eventually made it to the starting line. Well...about half a mile behind the starting line. Of the 38,000 people who descended upon Charleston just for the purpose of running over a big bridge, I was number 24088. That was NOT my rank mind you, it was just the number I was assigned before the race. We had decided early on that Blair and Dominique (the more ambitious members of our foursome) would run ahead and Melissa and I would keep our short-legged duo and run the best we could...with the plan of walking UP the bridge. We ran a two full miles before the incline (heck yes, I could run two miles...and if I could run two miles, I could do anything). We started walking at the 2 mile mark, and started running again well before the 3 mile mark...which means, when all was said and done, we ran about 5.5 miles. I always thought people who could run five miles were athletic beasts! They were Ms. Dockery - the insane calculus teacher from FMHS. They were my friend Joey with his amazingly svelte runner's legs. They were people like Lance Armstrong without the bike. They weren't people with 27 inch inseams! Actually running across the finish line is something I consider to be no less than a miracle.

What does one do with this new found athletic ability? One SHOULD have committed herself to the nearest insane asylum...but nooooooooooo, this girl thought it'd be a good idea to start Power90 for the second time just 3 days after running her first 10K. And this time I promise to hold myself accountable by posting pictures...as I take them! I'm sure none of you noticed that I just never got around to that last time. SO - after the kick start week, I'll be taking my second "Before" pictures Sunday evening, so look for them sometime next week. And watch out - bathing suit season doesn't stand a chance against me this year!