Bellin 10K Race Report

So the day had finally come for the big race, the Bellin 10K in Green Bay on June 11, 2011. Last year I walked the Bellin in 1:45, my goal was to run it this year and get a better time. The Bellin offers local schools a chance to sign up for their Kids For Running program where kids can sign up at their school to train for the bellin and then run it. If kids can't afford shoes, or running clothes or the fee then a local company will pay for it. It is very cool. One of the parents who runs the Bellin every year decided she wanted to see it happening at our elementary school this year and so it did. We started training on April 4 with just a 1/2 mile run. We meet every Monday and Wednesday night to train and then on Saturdays when we got to our longer runs. I was asked to be one of the coaches, so I got a really cool running coat and a extra shirt. We started with around 60 kids at the start and ended with about 25-30 that actually did the run on Saturday. We also had quite a few parents that did it with their kids and trained with us. Very cool.
So Saturday was only like 50 something and a little cold but better than hot. We got up at 5:15am and woke up the kids and my mom and had oatmeal for breakfast. We then piled into the van at 6:15, to get to Green Bay to meet the rest of our group for 7:30. We got into our corrals around 8am. There was 18,701 people doing the Bellin for their 35th year. It was crazy but very exciting. We got to the start line right around 8:30 right as the first person was finishing!
I ran with my friend, Mary and we kept each other going. We walked when we got to each of the water stations and drank but then we kept running. When we got between mile 5 and the end Mary said,"When we get to the corner let's walk until that yellow house (less than 1/5 a block)." I said that's fine, I was getting tired and that little break was perfect and then we ran until the end! I finished it in 1:09:48, I couldn't believe it, just over one hour. I was soooo excited and pumped. We went through the corrals and got our water, food and then we got medals! They gave medals this year since it was the 35th year of the Bellin.

Then we found our Kids for Running group to see who was back. My 9 year old was back already, he finished in 1:04:23, my husband, Tom who was pushing our 4 year old finished in 1:23 (he was running and walking), my 11 year old had decided to walk with my mom instead of running and they finished in 1:45. I love the fact that our whole family did the race. It was very cool.

By the way this is the first time I have blogged since July 2010, almost a year. I am going to try very hard to keep up with this as this will def. help with my journey. Thanks to the sisterhood of the shrinking jeans for helping me get to this race and running the whole thing! It was all because I did the Couch to 5K in the fall and kept going. Thanks!