First Ever Race Recap

Well, we did it! On Saturday, M and I completed our first 5k race. Overall, I was pretty happy with the experience. We finished in 43:16 which was less than my goal of 45 minutes and a bit faster pace than our training runs but I was still hoping by some miracle that we'd be a lot faster. :)
By some stroke of luck, my legs felt amazing! No tightness or cramping so I didn't have to stop mid-race and stretch, which I was really nervous about needing to do. Because my legs weren't bothering me, I did have a struggle in my head about endurance and we slowed to walk a few times. I think I'll need to work on some tough love pep talks to give myself to keep going. I'm sure the confidence will come in time as we continue to log more miles and races.
The best result of the race is just having completed it and having a lot of the anxiety gone. Now I have a better idea about what to expect, how to pace myself (although I imagine that will take awhile to really figure out), etc. I was really worked up and worried about what other people would think of me, etc but once we got out there I realized quickly that the "fast" runners were long gone that this was our (my) race to run. I was concerned about people at the finish line and being embarrassed of my slow time. The few people who were lingering at the finish line were looking for the people they knew and weren't paying attention to us. Three awesome people at the finish line were looking for us- my parents and our daughter! It was really great that they came out to support us and meant a lot to me.
I'm so grateful to my husband, who has been with me literally every step of the way. We're both really excited about running and liked the race so much that we signed up for another one this upcoming weekend! Stay tuned for round 2...