Bloomsday Number Three

The first weekend in May is Bloomsday. It's one of the largest races in the world (about 50,000 people) and people from all over the globe come to Spokane for this 12k. This was my third time participating (last year's recap here), and the only time I decided to actually try and run. I've been training for a little while with Isabel, but not too long... and my time confirms that. 

I was awoken at a little before 7 in the morning by music from across the street. The same five upbeat songs were playing at a law firm across the way... we live on the Bloomsday course and they were just getting ready early. 

 So I got dressed in my running attire and joined friends in the hallway who were running also. Heidi, Stephanie, Isabel and I all ran Bloomsday... Carson decided to pick up a shift at work instead of running because he still can't run very far (since he fractured his foot last summer), so he took this picture. Heidi was an earlier start time, so she had left for the race already. 

Stephanie was running Bloomsday with her sister-in-law in a later color group, so Isabel and I walked downtown and joined the blue group. The sea of people in this picture is all our color group, and there were so many more of them. Where we were standing for this picture, we were in the way of the bathroom line, so we moved along and got closer to the front. 

We crossed the start line and couldn't run because there were so many people, but we started off soon enough. I can't run very far and this race made me realize that I should have trained for SO much longer than I did, but I was able to run a little bit. Isabel was so sweet and very encouraging; she can run way faster and longer than I, but she stayed with me and was great at pacing. 

Our time wasn't that great (because of me)... 1 hr 40 min. I'm a little disappointed, but in all fairness, I never did that well on inclines anyway, and the Bloomsday course is rather hilly, so I guess I didn't stand a chance.

Looking back at the finish line:  

Post-race sweat

The finish line from the t-shirt line

The line to get t-shirts by the mall... I think we waited for a good 25 minutes.

Back at the Reilly... our shirts! We think they're a little on the ugly side, but whatever. 

Bloomsday people from my living room, after I was finished: 

I iced my muscles for the first time ever after running, which makes me feel like I'm something of an athlete, which I'm not (or I would hopefully have run in less time than I did). I had no idea that icing actually worked, but now I'm a fan.
If you're wondering, the answer is YES... I have ventured out to run twice since Sunday. It was more of a walk because I'm terrible, but muscles are building and endurance is growing... small steps! I'm hoping to really get back into running this summer.