avenue of the vine 5k - sg finishes his first 5k!

at the start line

happy racers!

we were up before the sun to make the hour drive to the woodbridge winery in lodi. as we looked for parking, i could hear sg snickering. at the people in their short shorts, lubing up, scarfing bananas. everyone tanned and toned. he said, "these people are crazy!" and i said, "welcome to the club! you're one of us now!"

what put him over the edge was seeing a pregnant lady! running!

we talked about goals the night before, and since we hadn't had a dedicated training run in about a week and a half, we decided to just aim for our normal training time of 40 minutes. plus race day was gonna be HOT! like in the 70s at start time at 7 am hot.

i couldn't tell if he was nervous. i just think he was soaking it all in. and concentrating on sucking in his gut as people with 2% body fat walked by. he was fascinated by the sea of ridiculoulsy fit people. but i mentioned that there were normal people like us. and that everyone in between fit in too.

as for the actual race itself, we started off at a 2 min run, 1 min walk interval. after some time that switched to a 1 min run, 1 min walk interval. then it turned into a run when he could and walk when he could interval. though early on i told him to be aware of the people around us and lock on. find someone to pull you through. and towards the end, he did lock on and say "oh my god, we HAVE to beat her. promise me we'll beat her. and if i can't beat her, promise me YOU will" i said, " i'm not leaving you, we're beating her together"

i pushed. he cursed. i pushed. he took a breath, then poof, off he went. and we ran, ran ran. to the finish! just 30 seconds under his goal time! i even let him cross the finish line first ;)

it wasn't until later, after we had gotten our wine glasses and tastings, cooled off under the misting tent and were sitting in the air conditioning in the car eating watermelon that the thought occurred to him that the finish line was the perfect place to propose to me. what a missed opportunity!

but i said, "you've had the date in mind for a long time, i'm sure it's the right decision" while secretly thinking, "i could have the ring right now you buffoon!"

but in all seriousness, we had an awesome day! and while he's not itching for the next one, i am... :)

finishers are winners!