3545

I survived Spirit Week. Barely. Let's just say that during the course of the week, I went to school dressed in a prom dress and tennis shoes, dressed as a dwarf, and with the flags of Germany and Belgium adorning my hair. No, it makes no sense, but that is the insanity of it all. This is homecoming week at a school with no football team. There is no one place to focus the energy, so it just explodes into a chaotic mess of school pride, leaving everyone drained by Friday. I lay in bed this morning wishing, longing to be able to stay there for another hour or two. That, however, was not in the cards. Instead, Ben and I got up early and ventured into the cool October morning to run our very first 5K. While more quality time with my pillow would have been nice, in the end I felt good and very lucky.

Ben and I have not been as diligent lately with getting out of the house and running, so we were a little apprehensive about the run. Or I should say I was a little apprehensive about the run. Ben has this indomitable confidence that he can do things that boggles my mind. I was worried that I was not going to make it. School has been a huge energy drain, and running has taken a back seat. With this in mind, we knew that we were not going to be contenders for first place, so we diligently took our positions with the rank-and-file behind the start line.

Someone yelled, "Start!" Ben and I soon eased into a steady pace, our feet rhythmically pounding the asphalt. Before too long, he surged ahead of me. My short legs just can't keep up with him! His lean figure would pop into view between the trees whenever we rounded a corner. While I could not rival his pace, I managed to hold my own. The sound of footsteps and breathing accompanied me throughout the majority of the race as I stayed just ahead of one lady. A few feet in front of me, another girl held the distance steady until I surged ahead toward the end.

My lungs were threatening revolt as I rounded the last bend to see a family from our ward and Ben cheering me on. We had made it! Ben finished in 26 minutes 25 seconds, while the clock read just over 28 minutes when I crossed the line. It didn't matter that we were no where near the top times (about 17 minutes for the men and 21 for the ladies); our times are great for us! We'll see how much our legs complain tomorrow.

Our legs, however, are the only part of us that has any room for complaint. Both our bib numbers (3544 for Ben and 3545 for me) were pulled during the raffle afterwards. Talk about lucky! In the end, I traded a lazy morning in bed for the experience of running a 5K, bread for a year, and a night's stay at a hotel downtown. Yeah, it was worth it.