My First 5k! Komen For The Cure 2009!

I did it!!! I power walked my first 5k today as part of the Komen For The Cure walk for breast cancer.
Originally I was going to go by myself and meet my friends up there, but when I looked at the very complicated map of parking and shuttle routs, I got scared and forced my husband to take me. I am directionally challenged and I would have ended up lost and crying in a ball on the ground and never would have made it to the race if he hadn't taken me. Who needs that anxiety, right? Plus, it was just really nice having someone waiting for me at the finish line :)
So we finally got a parking spot and I swear, it was practically a 5k just to get from my car to the starting line!! We found my friends and waited around for our race to start.

It was SO packed, I couldn't even take enough steps to activate the Nike + sensor in my shoes! The air horn went off, signaling the start of the walk, but we couldn't move, lol, it was just so packed with bodies.

For the first 5 minutes of the walk I think I moved a whole yard, if that, lol. Once the pack finally broke up and we could actually move, it was great. I wasn't able to keep the pace I really wanted to because I was walking with other people who weren't as fast of walkers as I am, but that's ok, it kept me from getting too burned out. We ended up loosing each other though, and I spent a lot of waisted time looking for them instead of just walking on ahead, so I ended up crossing the finish line later than I would have, but again...no biggie. It'll just make my next finishing time look that much better :)My husband was waiting for me at the finish line and cheering me on :) so that was really nice.

I was walking for my grandma. She didn't pass away from breast cancer, but her breast cancer is what triggered the other cancers that she did die from :( So it was an emotional day for everyone, but you could really feel the positive energy! It was empowering :)

Then we walked around just for a little bit and got all kinds of free swag! It was so awesome to see SO many survivors of breast cancer and people who were walking in memory of loved ones who have passed away from it.

Really it was such a great day! I felt great after my first 5k and now I feel confident that I can do all the other ones!! YAY!