When I say "To", you say "Marrow"! "To!" "Marrow!"

Here it is, the long awaited 5K Run Edition of Operation: Longevity!!!

Yesterday was AWESOME! I feel so accomplished and it truly is motivating to meet all these goals. I was even more excited not to do this venture on my own. Jess and Mandi flew in from New Hampshire on Friday afternoon (after Mandi's short make-out session with Enrique Iglesias on stage at the Boston concert the night before - but that's a different story), and Shy met me at my house Saturday Morning and we picked up Nicole on our way down to Atlantic Station. Unfortunately we couldn't find Scott and his daughter Rachel in the crown of 600 runners before the race started, but we were able to meet up afterwards and all go to brunch.

Our Team T-shirts… mine had the ribbon honoring Courtney

First off… the energy was AMAZING!!! All of the volunteers and staff were so excited and supportive of all the runners. The main photographer was excited to see our group and said that she recognized our team name from the registration!!! The gathering site had a bunch of goodies like bagels and cream cheese from Einstein's Bagels as well as coffee, there was a table to sign these giant posters with messages of hope, there was a place where you could register for the donor list and have a buccal swab, and other little sponsor tents.

They had a couple of these standing boards to write on and 3 more tables with posters.

We took a second to visit the little girls room prior to the start of the race and utilized that opportunity for a photo op.

My amazing husband got up super early to come and support us, cheer me on, and I can only assume witness the completion of my first 5K. It was so good to have him there and he was privy to see the first dude cross the finish line at just under 15 minutes… WHAOOOAAAA... that dude is super-human, cause that's just B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!! I don't think I was even at the half-way point at 15 minutes!!! Crazy Kenyan's!!!

I was really excited, not at all nervous before the start, and ready to go. They had a woman sing the national anthem, which was beautiful, albeit soooooo sloooooow. And then we headed over to the starting line!!!

Bummer, but the sun blocked out the "start" sign

Aaaaaaaaand… we're off!

The first mile was super easy, in fact, I couldn't believe how fast it came and went, we hit the 1 mile mark just past 11 minutes and I was thinking… this is a piece of cake, and then came the hills… and more hills, and more, and more, and more. In fact, with the exception of the first half mile, the entire course was uphill… how that's possible?!?!? I don't know… but I swear, the whole freaking thing was UPHILL!!! The second mile mark took FOREVER to get to, and when we turned the corner to see the second mile marker, we were also greeted by this monstrous hill right in front of us to tackle.

If you can't tell already, Nicole was awesome at documenting the entire thing… in fact, we had to take this picture 3 or 4 times because this one lady kept getting in the damn way!!!

There was no way in hell I was able to run that hill… my heart-rate was crazy high as it was, and the idea of adding that much of an incline was preposterous, so admittedly, I walked up the monster hill (and then started running as Nicole was documenting the slope of this monster so it looked like I ran the thing). I was asking the "experienced" runners and they all said that the hill yesterday was a bajillion times worse than the hill in the Peachtree Road Race known as Cardiac Hill. This one was longer and steeper… go figure. In fact Nicole said the entire course was one of the hilliest runs she's done!!!

We rounded another corner and the cool thing is that the 2Day Walk for Breast Cancer was passing us at the same time, so it was really neat to see all of the groups of pink walking the other direction.

The last mile+ was way easier with the exception of my right foot being completely asleep (and had been since about the half way mark). I had to stop and re-tie my shoe cause it was sooooo uncomfortable. I seriously need to get a good pair of running shoes before I do this again, cause it was not a fun feeling. 

We hit the 3 mile mark and I knew it was almost over and the finish line was right around the corner!!!

What an amazing experience, what an amazing feeling of accomplishment, and I have a renewed energy to move forward. 

My final time was 38:43.74 I averaged a 12:29 minute mile. I came in 78 out of the 123 in my age group and 350 out of the 567 participants, overall. Nicole and I both argue that we need to deduct at least 10 second for the times we stopped for photo-ops and our goal is to get down to a 5 minute mile, to beat that crazy Kenyan!!!

I want to send a HUGE shout-out to EVERYONE who supported me. There are far to many of you to name individually, but I had $820 in donations from 23 different donors. I had so many texts, emails and Facebook posts prior to the start of the race to offer support and encouragement. 

And, of course, I can't help but thank my teammates who ran with me. Shy, you rocked it like a bullet, I'm so proud of you and how far you've come, you're such a motivation to me! Mandi, thanks for stopping to cross the finish line with us - it really meant a lot. Nicole, you were right by my side the entire time, documenting every mile and encouraging me along. Jess, you rocked it girl, way to push yourself and run across that finish line!!! Scott and Rachel, I love that I had support from my Bootcamp Family!!!

So… what's next?!?!? Well, there's already talk of the Turkey Trot around Thanksgiving and the Jingle Jog in December… I'll keep ya'll posted!!!