No Teacher Left Behind

We did it! After 5 weeks of training after school, we ran a 5K! After completing the Cowtown 10K with my family, I had this desire to run in a race with my co-workers. There is something special about training for a common goal and then achieving that goal together. When I threw the idea out to my fellow teachers I was unsure on the response I would get. Boy was I surprised! Thirteen responded YES! We began by walking a 3 mile course and slowly worked our way up in difficulty. There was a group of walkers, a group of walk/runners, and a group of runners. It is so exciting seeing these ladies set goals for themselves and then watch them achieve those goals. 

This morning we all met at 6:15 am at the DART station and headed down to Fair Park. The weather was a little warm but at least there was no rain. The race went great and thanks to some of the very supportive husbands, we got lots of pictures. After the race we headed to Cafe Brazil for a celebratory brunch. What a great day! 

Oh, I almost forgot the most fun part ... our t-shirts. We had hot pink shirts made that said "Dartmouth Runners" on the front and "No Teacher Left Behind" on the back. We got many compliments and comments on our t-shirts this morning. They are pretty cute :).

This is what the back of our shirts looked like.

Here we are pre-race

And we're off!

About to cross the finish line!

We did it!

Rock N Roll Half Marathon

The week before we ran the Cowtown 10K, Brian and I were on a run and he was telling me how he thought we should train for a half marathon. I quickly told him he was out of his mind and the subject was quickly forgotten.

I don't know what happens to your body/mind after a race but it must make you have these super human abilities because that very day we decided we were going to run in a half marathon in just 5 weeks. It is still humorous to hear people's reaction to us training/running a half marathon. I get a lot of "I remember when you hated running." "I remember when I couldn't get you to run 2 miles with me." Yes, its true. I was very against running for a VERY long time. I think my mind changed when I just started out small with running one mile. Then moved up to 1.5 and then 2 and so on. Plus a lot of encouragement from Brian helped too :).

Anyways, back to the half marathon. We had to wake up super early because the race started in downtown Dallas but they asked people to park at the finish line (Fair Park) and ride the shuttle over. When 16,000 people are trying to get to the same place at the same time, traffic is just going to be awful! Thankfully we got to the start of the race with time to spare. 

We had a great group of "cheerleaders" waiting at different mile markers throughout the race. Grant was at mile 7 and the finish line, Brian's parents were at mile 8 and 11, and my parents and Tanner were at mile 9 and the finish line. Surprisingly the race was great. I started to feel tightness in my left leg around mile 12 but other than that I felt good. We kept a good pace and ran the entire way. That was my biggest goal. I didn't care how slow we ran but I wanted to say that I RAN a half marathon. We finished in 2 hours and 35 minutes. Here are some pictures of us during the run.

Mile 11

Mile 11-Quick stop for a picture

FINISHED!

Tomorrow a group of 12 teachers from my school will be running in the Big D 5K. We started training the week before Spring Break and they have come so far! It is so exciting to watch people go from only being able to walk 3 miles to running 3 miles and wanting to try a 10K. I am so proud of their accomplishments. We had some awesome t-shirt made with our motto on the back "No Teacher Left Behind!" More pictures to come later.