Niagara Falls Marathon (5K)

SOOOOOOOO... the day finally arrived.  The Niagara Falls Marathon, 5K that I was participating in.  This past weekend it was finally time.  After my wonderful friends helped me reach my $500 goal, not only was I going to participate in the race, but I also got to go to a dinner hosted by Remember Betty and Danny Wood from NKOTB.  Even more exciting Opal and Kerry were both making the trip up! 

It was an awesome experience minus two things:  1.  I hurt my knee 2. Kerry was stuck in the US while Opal and I were in Canada :(

I am thankful for the experience, but to date I still have not been able to RUN a 5K.  This was the time I thought it was going to happen, and honestly it was the perfect venue for my first running race.  It was a pretty flat course and very beautiful.  However, my knee did not cooperate.  :(  I actually have an appointment with the orthopedic tomorrow after an Xray on Monday showed some issues.  It took us over an hour to complete the course :(  Before this race I was actually doing a 5K in around 45 minutes.  So, sadly I did not reach my goal... but we did finish the race even with my knee partially locked up. 

At the finish line we had Danny Wood and many team members waiting on us.  It was awesome. 

 

Color Me Rad 2014

So last year I posted a picture of myself after completing the Color Me Rad race.  I vowed in that post that this year (2014) I would not only complete the race, but run it.  Well, sadly that did not happen.  My knee has been bothering me off and on for a few weeks now and I was more concerned that I would hurt myself if I ran this race.  I have the Niagara Falls Marathon 5K to participate in at the end of the month, and I want to be able to run as much of that as possible since it is actually timed (unlike Color Me Rad).  I did however have Kyle take a few pictures of me at the end of this years race, so that I could compare them to last year.  I love progress pictures.  One of the hardest parts about losing weight is to stay encouraged and see your own progress.  Progress pictures help me stay focused on the goal... and see how far I have actually come.  Sometimes seeing pictures helps out so much when the scale is not moving... or you have a bad week... or you aren't eating the way you know you should... it helps!  :)  So here it is.  Color Me Rad 2013 and Color me Rad 2014.  Thank you for following my journey for the past year.  The kinds words from friends and strangers have been overwhelming.  Thank you. Thank you.  Thank you.