The big race went down.  I cannot explain the level of jitters that it put in me as the day crept closer and closer.

They stated that there were 1500 who had registered for the race, of which 874 finished.  Me, I finished number 432 over all, in other words, dead middle.  My goal was to finish in 45 minutes, and my official time was 39 minutes, 57 seconds!  I am very pleased.  It was very satisfying experience.  I started running on November 1, 2013.  That day is marked, because it was the day after Cathy lost her job – right after my doctor told me that I need to make some changes in my life physically.   It marked the beginning of the running journey for me.

But I was not alone in attempting a journey.   My problem – when I run, I become absorbed with the world around me.  I am almost like a tourist!  There were others on their own journey, and it was incredibly inspiring.  They even wore shirts to mark that journey.   One T-Shirt read — 2009 – Colon Cancer / 2013 – Brain Tumor / Cancer Won’t Kill Me.  Another T-Shirt read – Finish Strong, and the gentleman wearing the shirt was  gnarled , running with a limp, and had an entourage around him encouraging and helping him run along.  He was only about a minute behind me.  Great job!  Then there was a group of very excited runners, all wearing orange t-shirts.  Half of them read Guide Runner and the other half read Blind Runner.  One of them beat me by more than 10 minutes!

It was a great day of accomplishment for a lot of people.  The race on the next day (The Little Rock Marathon, Half-Marathon, and 10k races) got all the press.  But for me, my 5K was my mountain.  I wanted to prove that I could do it, but I sure wanted to stop and snap photos of the highly emotional stories that I was surrounded by.

Here are a few shots my family took of me that day.  Kind of weird because usually I am not on that side of a camera lens.