Jessica, 1st Passenger, took part in her first 5K run in Westfield, NJ yesterday evening. She has been training on her own for the last few months. First walking then jogging ever increasing distances. Almost every morning she was out of the house for an hour or more running in the park down the block or up to town. Finally she felt she was ready to see what she could do in a real, organized and timed run.
Runners started signing up for the 4th Annual Run For the Pizza at 5 PM and the race was to take place at 7 PM. Terry and I went as support to cheer her on. The temperatures in the afternoon were in the high 90s and the humidity was way up there too. Luckily for all the runners, a cold front swept through the area around 5:30. It lowered the temperature about 10-15 degrees and dropped enough rain to make things cool off quickly. By the time the gun went off to start the run, things were pretty comfortable.
Terry and I were at the Start/Finish line. While we didn't see her start off, we cheered when she crossed the finish. She didn't finish in the top 1000 (there were over 1300 runners), but she did finish #1241, ahead of nearly 100 others, in 35:55 for a personal best. Not bad for someone who never ran any race before and for whom athletics meant lugging a tuba around at football games in high school and college. Now she has a time mark to aim for, she has been looking at other events in which she can participate.
Jess started to run to compliment her Weight Watchers diet. After losing over 50 pounds, she felt it was time to start firming things up. (Plus she needed the extra metabolic work to help with the weight loss.) She's working hard to lose the weight but has been seeing good progress. Having her mother (down 25 pounds) also going to the meetings and dieting with her has been a boon. It hasn't hurt me either. I've dropped over 40 pounds in the last year. We're all feeling healthier because of the weight loss and better eating.
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