Yesterday started off a little slow.  I was 10 miles from work and and ran into this.

Bumper to bumper traffic!  We crawled along for about 7 miles with no clue as to what was going on.  I assumed there was a wreck somewhere.  Look who came to keep me company.

I was supposed to be at my desk at 8:00!  This ended up being the reason for the backup.

I read online later in the day that this belonged to a family from New Jersey.  They all got out safely.

When I got to work I had overnight oats that looked exactly like these.

At 9:00am we were able to pick up our race packets at work.

This is our T-Shirt that my co-workers designed.  It ended up winning “Most Creative Design” at the awards ceremony following the race.

In the afternoon I had another birthday lunch to attend at Cracker Barrel.  I ordered a salad with the dressing on the side.  The entire time I was eating there was a piece of cornbread calling my name, but I resisted!

This was the 2nd time I’ve had this salad. It’s really good but they load the dressing on, so I asked for it on the side and used very little.

When I got back to work, I had one of the Weight Watchers Whitman’s candies that Kate sent me for Easter.

We changed into our race gear at work, since we were heading Downtown right from there.  This is my co-worker Kim and me.

At 5:00, we headed downtown.  Each corporation had their own tent set up in Metropolitan Park.  Everyone met up there for a group pic before the race started.

I’ll post the group pic when I get it.

So, I suppose you want to hear about the race?  The weather was perfect with the temperature in the 60’s and a nice breeze.  I started off “ok” and then started running more than I have in any other race.  I felt good.  After the turn around at the 1.5 mile mark, I was passing my fellow employees that were behind me..and I was running.  I still felt good and might have even been smiling.

Right around the 2.5 mile mark, the police stopped us to let traffic go through!  WHAT?!  I couldn’t believe it was happening.  I seriously wanted to throw myself on the ground in a temper tantrum.  I haven’t participated in that many races, but I’ve never seen that happen.  After that, I ended up with a horrible side stitch.   It hurt so bad, I couldn’t even walk for a couple of minutes.  It hurt to breathe.  Finally, the pain started to subside, so I started walking and eventually ran to the finish.  My Garmin said 42:18 but I don’t have the official time yet.

I was extremely disappointed!!  My goal was to finish in under 40:00.  I think I could’ve done it if it wasn’t for the traffic stop and the side stitch.  As I was approaching the finish line, I was cursing running and my body, but the truth is that I did notice an improvement.  I’ve been working hard and will continue to follow the Ease into 5k program.  My legs are pretty tight this morning, so not sure if I’ll run today, but I will definitely be doing Week 3 Day 1 tomorrow.  I think I’m going to wait to run another 5k until I complete the program.

I had a free piece of pizza – 5PP directly following the race and when I got home, I had some sweet potato fries and a turkey burger without a bun – 8PP.