My first race of the year went a whole lot better than my first race of last year – I am hoping that this is a sign of good things to come!
On Saturday my sister and I travelled through to Jeffery’s Bay to do the Woodlands Dairy 15km road race. It went very well and as I passed the 5km mark I realised that it was my fasted 5km ever. I also realised that those 5km’s were all downhill. As it turns out the first 8km are all pretty much downhill. That meant that the next 7 would all be up hill and I was expecting it to all turn pear shaped! Well, they went a whole lot better than expected. I walked only once (good for me on hills) and hit very close to a PB (Personal Best – for those non-runners) at the 10km mark and ended with a PB of over 2 minutes for 15km. Ah happiness.
But, my running for the day was not over. I bought Little OL a new pair of takkies earlier in the week and she has declared that they are her running shoes and that she now needs to run with mom. When I got home we put them on, some shorts and tied her hair in to a pony. We then went for a “run” together – all the way around the block. It was so cute! She wanted to hold my hand and at the end asked for a high five! We really want to encourage the belief that sport is something you do for life and not just at school because it’s compulsory. I hope that by the example we are setting she sees sport is something to be enjoyed and embraced. I am very fortunate that my mom is still very active. She still competes in races, goes on hikes and walks etc. I have a great example that you are never too old, and hopefully I can pass this on as well. That would be my best.
