The first of November marked a really special 5k for me–it was a fundraiser for the Vicki Soto Memorial Scholarship.  For those who don’t remember, she was the young teacher who was killed during the Sandy Hook shooting.  All the money raised by the run went towards the scholarship given to teachers to go to school for their degrees.  It meant a lot to me that I ran it.

Here’s our before photo:

It was FREEZING.  It was below 40 degrees, it was raining and even snowing at some points (hence Christian’s sheltered face).  The race itself was beautiful.  It ran through the town of Stratford, CT, and most of the homes had left water and snacks for the runners.  Other houses had music planning for us, and others just had signs that reminded everyone just how much Vicki Soto was adored.  It was touching. 

After the race, there was a ton of delicious things for us to eat and drink.  Pizza, and bread, and granola bars, and beer–it was amazing.  The turnout was incredible.

There’s no post-race photos because I forgot to take one.  I do have a hilarious set of me eating some of the garlic bread we got and Nick eating the granola bar:

 

It was the first race I ran the entire 5k, which marked such a huge step for me.  I had never until that moment ran a whole race.  Of course I freaked out.

Here’s my race stats:

Total distance: 3.16 miles

Total time: 45:14

Pace: 14:20 min/mi (1 minute, 1 second faster than the last race)

Place in Race: 1403 out of 2169 runners

For the record, Nick came in 1692, and finished in 50:13–not bad, eh?