There are no pictures of me face on coming into the finish b/c Steve didn't see me!! lol...I keep joking I must have been running too fast! haha...but seriously, even though I purposely wore a bright pink shirt he said he never saw me til I was running past him...oh well! so here is a picture of my arm! haah...

Last weekend I ran my first 12K run around Lake Oswego. It was a 7.44mile "challenging" race around the beautiful lake. I never found out til the week BEFORE that this was a challenging route with LOTS of hills so I was a bit scared...we had only trained on flat terrain but I surprised myself and I was really proud of my results.

I had told myself I would be happy with 74 min ( 10min mile) and when I was coming up to the finish line and it said 64minutes I was SO excited!!!! It was hard, I pushed myself HARD the whole race but I was so glad in the end:)
My official results were:

64min 02 sec / 8min 35 sec mile
It always surprises me....well at least with the 2 races I've done so far that I can run so much faster during a race than I do when I train. It must be my adrenaline.
I placed 89th out of 369 women
and placed 19th in my age group -which was 83 women between the ages of 30 and 34yrs old.

I'm really hoping to improve on these results and eventually (and I mean EVENTUALLY) be able to run these races at a 7 min 30 sec mile:)

I have to say the most rewarding part of all this running I've been doing is feeling like I'm getting back to my roots. You know how you look back to when you were a kid or a teenager or in college and wish you could do some of the things you did then?? well you can!!! In high school, I played all kinds of sports but my MAIN sport was ALWAYS running. Since I was 6yrs old I had been running and ran my first competitive race at 8yrs old. I love that I feel like I'm getting back to do what I LOVE! and I LOVE running!!!!!!!!!
To make the weekend even better, my mom and Jeff came down. AS I was running down the home stretch, I heard my mom yell "Go Nicole!!" she was so cute and it just warmed my heart!! I had a big smile and I didn't care who thought it was silly that some mom was cheering on her 30yr old daughter, it made my day!! Thanks MOM! and Jeff for coming:) love you both!!

Anyway, here are the photos!!!

busting my butt to get across the finish line!!

do I look happy or what ? lol...I think I was smiling at the girls when I finally found them!!

and now onto my running partners!!!!! Here is Valerie, she's run a marathon and half before..she's great!!

Here is Natalie!!! she's my friend and this is her first race...I think???she's done so great!

Here is Sabrina (she's waving to her little baby boy), she also has run multiple marathons and halfs before. Her and Valerie are my inspiration!!!

Go TEAM US!! LOL... that's "US" not "U.S" haha...we have fun together, I think we make a good team, we are great at encouraging each other.
I love them all!!!

Here is my mom and Jeff!!

Me and my babies!!

The loves of my life:)

and of course "The LOVE" of my life. Steve has been so patient with me with all my running and watching the girls etc, thanks honey!!

I didn't get pics of the others with their families, but here is Sabrina, Kevin and cute little Kaleb:)


We are now planning to run a half marathon on July 4th so stay tuned for those pics too!!