RACE FOR THE CURE - my first race ever

Yes, you read right. I ran a race for the first time ever. I hate running. Stick me in a gym class kick boxing, aerobics, dancing, whatever. I'll sweat and have the best workout the entire hour. But make me run for a half hour, uuuuuggggghhhhhh! So since I was home for the weeks leading up to it, I took advantage of my parents' treadmill and started running consecutively. I must say that I have started to enjoy it over these last few weeks.

I must also give a huge shout out to Bonnie Higley. This girl is outta control! She has turned out Ward into this extreme work-out ward. Not joking. She started a group called 'Smokin Hot Mommas' where we got points for eating healthy and working out. So along with this she started an 'aerobics' class to get our work-outs in. She calls it 'aerobics' but it's not your ordinary aerobics. Basically a mix of cardio and strength training which leaves a new muscle sore every week it seems like. She has turned us into some 'health' freaks I'd like to say. Monday & Friday we swim laps at our local pool. And Tuesday & Thursday are Bonnie's crazy hard work-out classes. A few months ago she mentioned this 5K Race for the Cure and I didn't even consider it. But somehow she managed to round up 18 of us from the Ward to run in this race, most of us first time racers. She also asked me to design our race shirts this year and I must say we had the coolest shirts out there! We were some definite 'smokin hot mommas'. Here's the front of the shirt... (the back of the shirt said 'See momma run. See momma run a lot. See momma get SMOKIN' HOT!)

Here's the group of us before the race started.

It really was an awesome experience though. 15,000+ running through the streets of downtown Atlanta for a great cause. We started running over the 17th street bridge that connects Atlantic Station and downtown Atlanta. This thing was packed shoulder to shoulder and I couldn't believe how many people there were. We had to weave in and out of people for quite some time to eventually make it to where we could run at our own pace. But we did it! This is after the race as you can tell from my sweaty red face.


Later that evening we got together with our friends to celebrate my b-day again. We headed to dinner and over to the Howells where Kendall & Marissa surprised me with cake & ice cream. Kendall's cupcake-flower creation was sweet! Thanks for a great night! (Don't you loved me blowing out my non-existent candles. It's a must for a birthday cake so I did it anyway)

Race in the morning, a lost toe-nail in the evening. Come to find out, Marissa ran the race in shoes that were a bit too small for running those 3 miles. This was her first time running that much distance and with her fake toe-nails, her big toe was killing her the entire time. While at her house that evening, she caught her toe on an edge and it started gushing blood everywhere while barely holding on by some skin. It was nasty and looked super painful. With us girls (mostly Kendall) doctoring Marissa in the kitchen we (Kendall again) got her foot to where it was wrapped & somewhat manageable. Marissa jokes that she'll have to paint her skin to make it look like a toe-nail during the upcoming 'summer sandal' season. (She looks all happy in this picture since we made her smile, but really, she was in a lot of pain. I hear those can hurt!)