Motivation Monday-Running for a Cause!

Welcome to the Best Race Ever...

Yes, we were slightly inspired by Michael Scott!

This weekend held the my first ever race where I was in charge of organizing it and putting it on. I would be lying if I said I hadn't been stressing about it a bit. True, it was just family and friends getting together to run a 5k, but since a lot of them weren't runners, I was feeling a lot of pressure to make this event uber fun and hopefully inspire them to keep racing or pick up some sort of activity. Plus, 5k people had no chance at prizes, so I wanted my runners to be winners and that added more stress. But it was good stress. The kind I sort of thrive on. In the end this ended up being our swag bag.

 Since it was a night race (added fun), we had glow necklaces and bracelets, a whistle in case you got lost or came across a strangler, a BFF ring because we are soooo BFFs, Fun Dip as pre-race fuel, a glo-in-the-dark hand sticker (you'll see where that goes in a second), and a popper to start the race with.

Coach and I thankfully got babysitters for the Future Track Stars tonight so we were looking at this like a date night! We left, quickly marked the course that I had measured out two different ways, and went to our meeting spot. Then we waited for everyone to show up, so I took a quick pic of the winning outfit!

The socks are from Chrissy's Knee High Socks HERE (full review and GIVEAWAY to come) and the reflective headband is from AC Designs on Etsy (review to come on this too!) 

Apparently, Jesse's brother Dr. Nathan, also felt the need for a self portrait!

Then everyone arrived, we handed out the swag bags, explained the course (mostly a series of loops and an out and back so we could see each other a lot, in theory), and then we suited up. We had lost a few original racers but we also picked up a few, so the numbers basically evened out. I have a few family members who will be running 5ks later for their times, although that may be good for their times (more on that later!) Of course, we did some pre-race for the cure shots!

The Runners (from leftish)-Drake, Heidi, Sawyer, Hunter, Kannon (stroller), Nate, Jesse, Me, Raya, Kambria, Nathan, Kalli, Ramona, and Clarissa in the front. Not pictured Erica (she was nice enough to take the pictures)

That's right, the stickers were for our butts! They served two purposes; so people could see us from behind and so we had a easy "good game" target!

We just really like pictures with our butts! Heidi, Me, and Clarissa

The race started with a pop, and we took off. Too be funny, Dr. Nathan took off at a sprint, but quickly wore out. One of the young boys (Drake) stayed up by Jesse and Nate the whole time. Us girls were sort of in a cluster for a while but then Clarissa (who remember had already ran a 5 mile race that morning) felt the need to ditch us all and take off. We got a few looks running through the park and the streets of Centralia at night all lit up. When people asked we told them why we were running "We are racing for the cure!" "We are jogging for Jouberts" Then they would totally act like they got it. Even the two shady guys at the end, "Sure Joubert's, cool!" Anyways, we all kept trucking along. Ramona and her girls were are walkers, my mom was supposed to be there too but had to miss it. They did awesome! Poor Heidi had to do it pushing the single jogger but often with an extra child on board.

Raya and I were together when we passed our husbands and they were doing great! Raya's man, Dr. Nathan, doesn't run but he should he was killin it! After a bit I let Raya go on, and I stayed back with Heidi and her boys since my knees were hurting and I didn't want her left in the back. When we got back into the park it was really dark. Like really, really dark! I quickly remembered there were speed bumps when I tripped over one. It was graceful, but I was careful to keep my eye out for them. It felt like we had been running a long time and at some point I lost Heidi to a phone call so I kept going alone.  As I was describing the course to everyone they said it sounded long, but I said I thought it was right, I had double checked. Getting close to the finish, though, it was feeling long, yet somehow I had kept running the whole way. From nowhere a flashing being jumped out and it was Heidi, coming to finish with me. She had cut through the park. So we made our way to the finish line, not very dramatically because it is hard to sprint when you are terrified of face planting over a speed bump. Finally we crossed the table and all our glow in the dark friends! Then I got the bad news. 42:15. That was my time. Ouch, I knew I was running slow and we had to stop to pick up a kid or two, but...oh wait what's that more bad news. The course was 6.2k not a 5k. Oops. Course mapping FAIL! Time still sucks but not as bad I guess!

Luckily no one seemed to mind my goof up too bad! Then it was time for prizes and medals. The prizes, candy bars. That's what you really want after running anyways right? Here is our finishers photo, some people are displaying their medals and prizes! And yes Jesse has a green mouth from slamming home some Fun Dip immediately after the race!

Then a few of us celebrated our kid free existence with a dinner at a local Mexican place and it was awesome! Unfortunately for our poor waiter, we let the boys sit in a booth together and they were ridiculous, but they had a great time! All in all I think we all had a great time. It felt great to be running for such an amazing purpose. Coincidentally we happened to have our race on Livestrong Day! Thank you to all my participants and to Laura for holding such a great event. It makes me very excited to maybe do something like this for autism and Peyton in the spring! And there is still time to do this virtual race, by the way, you have until the 10th! Just click HERE for all the info and tell her we sent ya.

P.S. Don't forget to enter our giveaway for a "HEART" to run necklace HERE. It is awesome motivation courtesy of Jessica's Gifts!