My first 5K Race!!!

Well, I have decided to start running! Mostly due to my sister Kim's motivation and also one day at the gym all the elliptical machines were in use so instead of waiting a really long time I said "why not?" and got on a treadmill to run/jog! Mind you, I am a beginner so it's more like jogging than running but I'll eventually get there! :)So my first race was the Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure and it was amazing! There were over 45,ooo participants! Plus all the other people there to watch, it was very exciting! We all got up at 5am to get into DC on time, and we found an awesome parking place just a few blocks from the starting line! The kids were loving the atmosphere of excitement, Rodney thought it was so cool to have the streets blocked off, he decided to lay down in the middle of the road by the starting line! They had several celebrities there to kick off the race, the crown prince and princess of Serbia were there and spoke to us, and the Vice President was also there and spoke to us! His wife is a big supporter, so he was there with her. There were a couple singers who sang some songs, they are famous but I can't remember their names so they aren't too famous to me! :) LOTS of PINK everywhere! We started the race a little after 8am and it took me 5 minutes just to get to the starting line there were so many people! John and the kids were there to see me off and John said the crowd was going through the starting line for at least 15 minutes! And that was just the runner's starting line, they had another section a few blocks down that was the walkers starting line! The route was so fun to run! They had Constitution Ave. blocked off and we started off running in front of the National Archives, then in front of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum and then in front of the American History Museum. Then over in front of the White House! And on down the street, we turned around over by the Viet Nam Memorial and came up by the Washington Monument, on by the Holocaust Museum, ran along the National Mall in front of the Smithsonian Castle and around over by the Air and Space Museum. We ended up over by the Capitol building! It was a long race for me since I"m not use to doing this type of thing but I loved it!!! I even beat my best time I had at the gym! At the gym my normal time for a 5K is 49 minutes, the best I've ever done it in is 47 minutes. At the race I did it in 43 minutes!! So I was happy about that! John and the kids were at the finish line waiting for me and that was awesome, he is so nice to get up so early and bring all the kids down to support me! They were giving out pink capes and Julia got one for her and me and put it on me when I crossed the finish line, she is so cute! I even have pictures of my really red sweaty face! :) Then we walked around with the kids, they had lots of booths out like an Expo and had tons of free stuff. Yoplait and Fuze drinks were major sponsors so we had lots of yogurt that day! yummy! Over by the Capitol they had complimentary snacks for everyone so we had a little picnic over there with apples, bananas, pretzels, applesauce, granola bars, lemonade and apple juice! We had fun walking around the mall enjoying everything, then we walked through the sculpture gardens on the way back to the car and headed home! We were very tired after getting up at 5am!