Baited Breath

So now that I've held you in my clutches with baited breath since Saturday, I am finally finding a moment to tell you about my weekend.

Saturday dawned freezing. LITERALLY! When I got to Hale Center Theater, it was 21 degrees outside. Within moments of getting out of my car, I instantly regretted not having any gloves, as I could no longer feel my fingers. I tried fruitlessly to pin my number on my hoodie, and finally got it, much to the dissatisfaction of my poor fingers which got repeatedly poked cuz they were so numb. After that I pulled my hands inside the arms of my hoodie. This is a habit I've had since I was a young teenager. It was convenient to just pull my hands inside the cuffs when the arms were too long on a coat or sweater. My hands warmed up quickly.
The original plan was for Andy to run the race with me, but he got very sick last week and was unable to attend. I was afraid I was going to be alone, but you can imagine my relief when I saw several members from my church there to run. I huddled in with them and started feeling better emotionally.
When the race started, we jogged to the light, and then I got left in their dust, LOL. But I wasn't alone for very long. At about the 1 mile mark, another entrant pulled up beside me, and we spent the next mile chatting. It was nice to be with someone. Soon we hit the vicious hill that is next to my house. This hill is a beastie, and it's part of the last mile of the race. Once again I was left in the dust, but half way up the hill my best friend Jazz was waiting for me. She did the last mile of the race with me. I finished my first 5k in 62 mins. And, for the record, I RAN across the finish line, and finished strong. I walked most of the race, and ran maybe a total of 1/2 mile of the whole 3 miles.
It wasn't until today that I remembered my prayer from Friday night. I asked the Lord to help me be strong, and please let there be friends there to help push me through. Now that I think of it, my prayer was answered. I was never alone. Someone was beside me almost the entire time. It's been a while since I've felt my Savior's love like that.

Yesterday I started doing the couch to 5k program. I've already chosen a race at the end of March to do. This one I intend to RUN the whole time.
When I got to the rec center yesterday, all the working TMs were in use, so I started my C25K on the eliptical. I know it doesn't really count, but it felt good, and I pushed through it.
Tomorrow I will go back, hopefully early, and get my running done. I see Clarene tomorrow. I'm excited. She will be so proud that I've lost so much weight and did a 5k.
Though I don't know that I'll be at 218 lbs tomorrow. I've put a little weight on from the race, which I'm told is quite normal. The morning of the race I was so nervous that I got the turkey trots. After my 4th time on the pot, I decided to weigh myself and found that I dropped 2 lbs, LOL. That brought me up to 30 lbs lost, total, but I've put it back on since Saturday.

Will try to drink a lot of water today and flush it all out.

Oh and moral of the weekend: When we really try, the Lord won't let us fail!