'The finishers' from Kim

The small and generally quiet area of downtown New Baltimore was transformed into a loud and overly populated place in a short amount of time. The 26th annual Jingle Bell Run brought out 700 people who participated in the 5k race and one mile fun walk. That's not including the spectators cheering everyone on. Several DJ stations were set up blaring out upbeat Christmas music; in fact, it was so loud by the recreation center that we had to yell to each other in order to be heard.

Lisa and I both got to New Baltimore around 2:30, we hung around the office and then went and picked up our number and shoe chip that keeps track of our time. It was nice to be early; we had the chance to check things out, stretch and do a little warm-up. We wandered back over around 3:45 and met up with our fellow run-clubbers. We all ran together with Carlos, our coach, the Sunday before. It was very snowy last week, so on race day I was prepared for anything!

Race day was cold, but not freezing, and had been raining off and on for the whole day. When it was time for us to run the skies held up and didn't rain and wasn't even too windy. The starting gun went off and we just stood there until the masses of runners in front of us started to run. Those masses included high school boys with shorts and no shirts, men and women pushing their children in special running strollers and hundreds of others of various ages.

Shortly after we started people were already stopping to walk; I knew then that there would be no way we would be last!

I kept up with Lisa until we made our loop back to Main Street and then I went into Kim Pace mode. The road had a slight incline and I didn't want to run out of steam only a mile into the race. For about a mile and a half I wasn't running in a pack, I was the lone runner and I was passing people! I could see Lisa ahead of me and Becky, another run clubber. With a mile to go, I began running faster, 200 yards to go and I "kicked it up" and sprinted past the finish line! I finished in 35:22 minutes and in 16th place for my age group. Lisa was a second behind me, literally.

What a great run though! I was impressed with myself and happy that I did so well. This 5k isn't a one time thing for me, I want to keep on running and continue participating in these runs! Through this whole process of training and pushing myself harder every week I learned that if I don't give up even when my legs hurt or if I'm out of breath then the next time I run I can go faster and farther. I've read that in various fitness articles, but it's completely different when it was me finding that out for myself.

Until the next race…

This is the picture Carlos took of us about to cross the finish line! That's me on the left and Lisa on the right (we don't know who the person is between us)