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| I just crossed the finish line at the Athleta Esprit de She 5K in Houston, TX in May 2012 |
I completed my first 5K a little over a year ago. Last May, I decided I needed to sign up for another race to push myself to beat my first time. While online, I found the Athleta Esprit de She 5K and immediately signed up and I am so glad that I did – the race was such a great experience!!
I signed up with my friend Stephanie and we both were excited and motivated to give it our best. When we arrived, the race pavilion was like a party; there was a DJ playing great pump-up songs and lots of different booths for us to check out. Stephanie and I arrived a little later than we had hoped (because we got off work and had to fight traffic to get there), so we didn’t get to spend a ton of time at the pavilion before the race official told all of the ladies to line up. One neat aspect about the Esprit de She events and what really appealed to me is all events are all female. I had never experienced an all-female race and I felt that at my workout level, this race was perfect. When the race began, Stephanie (who runs a lot more than me) tried to slow down to allow me to run with her (she’s so sweet), but I felt bad for holding her back, so I told her to go ahead. This was actually great motivation because I wanted to make sure that I did not finish too far behind her.
Eventually, I got into a rhythm and began running with the same group of women – I refer to them as The Pack. I would run ahead of someone and within five minutes, the she would pass me. It really was a big game of cat and mouse. Around mile 2.5, I was starting to drag. I started to slow down to allow my body a little bit of rest when one of the ladies in The Pack ran up to me and said “Hey girl, you got this. Keep going, you’re almost there!!” Wow! Just the motivation I needed.
Her inspiration is my favorite moment from the whole day and one of the main reasons I am running again this year! This lady did not have to take her time to encourage me; she could have kept on running her race and not cared about the girl who was struggling to finish her third mile, but she did! Esprit de She’s mission is “Spirit of Her” and, in that moment, I knew what they meant by it. If I could find the lady who took the time last year, I would say thank you. Thank you for motivating me during the race, but more than that, thank you for inspiring me to take the time to encourage others to be the best they can be, as well! This year, i hope to provide the same inspiration to other women on the course – I want to encourage other women to be the best they can be. I want to show them (and myself) that we can accomplish anything if we set our mind to it and motivate each other along the way.
I am so excited to announce that I was chosen to be an Esprit de She Ambassador this year and I can not wait for my 5K in 2 weeks!! I began my training a couple of weeks ago with the goal of beating my time from last year’s race (fingers crossed).
I would love to have all of you join me at the Texas Esprit de She events this year: Katy 5K/10K Run, Austin Cycle, Dallas Duathalon (Please use this referral code EDS72 to let Athleta know you heard about the races from yours truly). If you are planning on attending these events, please let me know! I would love to meet up with you on Race Day!
How do you keep yourself motivated during training and on race day?
Please note: This is NOT a sponsored post. All opinions are 100% my own and I would never recommend a product I didn’t 100% love.
Congrats!! That is really exciting!
Nicole
http://www.nicoletothenines.blogspot.com
Thank you Nicole! I am very excited for this opportunity!!
omg it looks super fun! congratulations dear <3
Letters To Juliet
Thank you!! I am extremely excited for this opportunity!
My sister-in-law is a marathon runner and whenever she talks about running I’m like, ‘I could do that. I should do that’ but then I actually think about it and realize running is not my thing. I really should give it a try though…