**Day 203**

At the end of last year I weighed 248.5 pounds, and I lived a sedentary lifestyle - if I didn't have to move, well, I didn't.  My picture should have been next to the word lazy in the dictionary!  But at the beginning of this year I decided to get healthy, and I'm well on my way.  I now weigh 216.5 pounds, and yesterday I did a 5K race!  I'm so happy it's over, but I'm so glad I did it!

I ran the race with my sister and my seven year old nephew, Nicolas.  I was so nervous about the race because of the heat, and it WAS brutal, but I would say we ran more than we walked.  I had two goals - finish the race, and not come in dead last.  Well, I did finish, and I didn't come in last.  It took me 49:12 to finish.  There were 823 runners, and I came in 807th, so close to last, but not last! :)  There were 78 females in my age division, and I came in 75th.

So, like I said, it was a brutal race for me.  I was so, so hot!  There were only three water stations along the way, but, seriously, I could have used like ten of them!  The last mile was the worst for me, and I admit that I whined like a 3 year old, but my sister talked me through it, and got me running again, and over the finish line. There was a fire truck at the finish line with a firefighter spraying water through a huge hose - I headed straight for that firefighter to cool off in the water!

I'm very proud of myself for doing the race, and I can't wait for the next one!  I'm not going to do another summer race, but I signed up today for a fall race....the Plainfield Harvest 5k Run/Walk on Sept. 25th.  My goal will to be to finish in less than 45 minutes!

I have to send out a huge thank you to my sister running the race with me - I wouldn't have made it through the whole thing without her!  And thank you to my wonderful husband and my awesome dad who came out in the heat to support me!  My mom would have been there, too, but she stayed home with my daughters and my other two nephews so they wouldn't have to be out in the heat - thank you, Mom!

Here are some pics from the race (click to enlarge):

Almost forgot - I decided not to weigh in this morning.  We went out to eat for a late dinner last night, so I'm sure I would have seen a gain on the scale, and I didn't want to let that get me down.  I just want to stay on my happy high from the race! :)  I think, since it's the end of the month, I'm going to hold off, and not do another weigh in until July 31st, and, hopefully, head out of July with a nice big loss!

Happy Friday!!!  And have a great weekend!