Emma Creek Classic 5k....

This past Saturday, a group of us participated in the Emma Creek Classic 5k Walk, Jog, or Run (we chose the "walk"). The race takes place in a town very near our own. Our group consisted of Jess, Trisha, Abby, Anne, Mary (my mom), and me. Also, Luke rode along and slept in the stroller.

The Emma Creek Classic is one of the largest women's fitness events in the state of Kansas. I've done it a number of times, and actually, two years ago, Jess and I jogged the race. This year, however, we decided we better stick to the walking. Neither of us thought we were trained properly to jog or run it.

It was EXTREMELY windy that morning, and it actually felt a bit chilly. It ended up being a stormy weekend (see previous post). Fortunately, the storms held off during the race :)

Here's the group of us (minus my mom as she took the photo) before the race began.



Here's a photo that I took of Trisha and Abby. Don't they both look so very cheery before a race?



Before too long, the race began. At first, because there are so many women of all ages in this race, it is a bit difficult to "weave" through everyone. Here's a photo of the many people ahead of us -- already on the street. We know we're fast, BUT we decided to be nice and let the runners go ahead of us :) (O.K., so there was a bit of sarcasm there).



After we got spread out a bit, I snuck ahead to get a photo of everybody walking. My mom took over pushing Luke in the stroller for a bit. In this particular photo, he was starting to get drowsy and very relaxed.



The race kept going. I didn't say this earlier, but in case you didn't know, 5k equals out to be 3.1 miles.

Here are a couple more shots from the race -- mainly of all of the people.





After walking almost 50 minutes, we finally approached the finish line. This photo is a little blurry, but it's actually a shot of the finish line.



Now, here's a photo of Anne. There is a small story to this -- Jess and I pretty much stayed ahead for the majority of the race, with my mom right near us. Anne, Abby, and Trisha walked behind us. Jess and I did talk very briefly about how we have the shortest legs, but we managed to stay ahead of our long-legged counterparts. How does that work?

Anyways, as we were approaching the finish line, Anne decided to go on ahead of us. One would have thought that she walked ahead of us the entire time. But, she didn't fool us. Jess and I know that we did stay ahead of her throughout the race.



We did finish, all in one piece. Here are the official results....

Anne: 51 min. 28 sec.
Jess: 51 min. 29 sec.
Me: 51 min. 29 sec.
Mary (my mom): 51 min. 30 sec.
Trisha: 51 min. 30 sec.
Abby: 51 min. 30 sec.

We were all very pleased to find out after we completed the race that a woman from our church, Helena, actually WON the race overall. Her time was 21 min. 3 sec. Go Helena!!!!!

You might remember in a previous post (probably 6 weeks ago or so) that our jogging stroller has a GPS on it -- compliments of Marc. Well, I used this GPS during this race to keep track of our time. Obviously, I didn't start the timer exactly when the race began because our official results are a few seconds off from the GPS. I think I like the GPS time better! It made us look just a few seconds faster.



Here is an "after photo" of our group (again, minus my mom since she took the photo). Notice that Luke was still sleeping. That's what he did through 1/2 of the race. How nice of him!



This race does have a WONDERFUL spread of food at the end for you to replenish your energy on. I had a hard time getting a decent photo with all of the people, but you get the drift.



Overall, I had a wonderful time, and I hope the rest of the ladies I walked with had a great time as well. And Jess, we'll have to actually run it again next year.

Jess did make a great suggestion. So listen up all of you Young Married women from Grace. Jess and I would like to form a "Young Married Women's" Team for this race (also including Debby and Sarah W.). We're both fairly certain we could possibly have the largest team and win that competition (I think we'd get recognized during the ceremony at the end). So, start training now. We wouldn't all have to run it. It would be perfectly fine for some to simply walk it or jog it. So, next March, be on alert for Jess and/or myself to make the announcement in Sunday School, complete with entry forms in hand :)

Why did we do this race? I could think of several reasons. First, it's fun to do things with girl friends. Having girl friends is a bond that's indescribeable, in my opinion. Second, it's fellowship with other believers. Third, it's great exercise. I realize I don't always do everything correct when it comes to taking care of myself, eating right, exercising, and maintaining proper weight. But, more and more, as I get older, I'm realizing the importance of it. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians of the importance of maintaining our bodies. I would like to share the verses.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with you body. I Corinthians 6:19-20

Ouch! Those are some great verses that I should post in my house as well as memorize. I know I can DO MUCH BETTER in that arena of my life.