I will tell you in secret, I was a little worried about today. I told everyone that I wasn’t but, honestly, I kind of was. I haven’t been training for it at all. I haven’t really been doing anything exercise-wise. I had a random goal of finishing in 45 minutes but my sister said a 55 minute goal was more realistic so I was sticking to that. But, honestly, my true goal was to not finish last.
Well, I didn’t finish last! (Unless you want to count me in the runners group because I was last there.) But, I was really in towards the beginning of the walkers group.
My official finish time was 55:55 but it took about a minute, maybe two before we actually started after the official start (due to being in the walkers group and not runners group and due to the large crowd at the beginning). So, I definiately reached my 55 minute goal.
And, I didn’t even see the people that ended last (except when I passed them after I’d turned around). 
And, want to know something else super awesome??? I ran a portion. I started the race running and did that for a short bit. I ran a shot while during the race. And, ran most of the last .2 miles.
My brother and his wife were there with my niece and nephews. When I saw them I invited my niece and oldest nephew to join me and they did. They got to run the last bit with me and all three of us crossed the finish line together. That meant a lot to me…more than I thought it would. (Although my nephew took the term “race” literally and informed me that he finished first — I’m not sure about that but I’ll let him believe it.)
On the path I past a police officer twice and had him contact my sister at dispatch to tell her how I was doing it — the second time I said to tell her I was almost done and her son was finishing with me.
It was a very special morning. I’m really looking forward to doing another event.
I have a pretty cool app on my phone so here are some fun stats from my walk.
Distance: 3.18 miles
Time: 55:55 (althought I stopped my app late so it actually says 56:59
Speed: 3.4 MPH
Pace: 11 minute mile
Mile two was my best averaging 3.5MPH. Here’s the link to the summary.
27 September 2009, 3:44 PM
Yay! Lanel! I’m so so so so proud of you. You are doing awesome! Keep up the good work and to see you accomplish this, I know KNOW KNOW how important it was to you. We are so proud of you over here in Texas. I’ll even do the “woohoo” dance for you.
28 September 2009, 6:28 AM
great job!!
i had the exact same goal as you for my first race – not to finish last!! 
congrats!!