Making A Tradition: Shamrock Run and Walk 2012

On Saturday, my mom and brother woke up for our first race of 2012: The Shamrock 2012 Run and Walk.

Devin wasn't completely awake at this point...

I woke up feeling GREAT! The scale said I was officially 16 lbs down!!! Down to 222 lbs. I was BEYOND excited. Last year when I was trying to lose weight, I didn't get to 222 lbs until July! It's only March...and I'm feeling WAY ahead of the game.

This will be my year.

On the other hand, Mom had a swollen ankle. Like really swollen. I actually asked if she wanted to sit this year out because it looked so bad!

She promised she felt fine, put on her ankle brace and said she was prepared to power walk the entire race. Maybe run a little bit.

Deal.

It was a perfect morning. Beautiful weather.My family. Fitness. Downtown Indy. My friends.

So on the way down there, I had to express my excitement. And pump up my mom and little brother too.

"Alright everyone, we are all going to share what we are most excited about today!" I said.

I do this often. I always try to set people in a positive mindset before a race or any major event.

"Devin, you're first!" I said.

"I don't want to die," he said.

"Okay, you aren't playing fairly," I said. "No one wants to die. But let's just say - you're going to beat your time from last year and you don't want to get hurt. Mom, what about you?"

"Well, I'd like to beat our time from last year!" she said.

"That's a good plan!" I said.

I paused. Waiting for someone to ask me why I was excited. A few moments of awkward silence and mom said, "What are you looking forward to about today?"

"Well," I said - wishing I had prepared a speech in advance, "I am looking forward to doing this as family. Not a lot of people can say that they've done a race with their mom. Or bother. Or both! This is our tradition. But really, you can't say anything is a tradition until the second year. And this is the year we can make truly this race our tradition."

***

After we crossed the start line, Devin was gone! We yelled and wished him good luck. He was missing baseball practice, so his coach was making him get an excellent time.

"What time should I get?" Devin asked his coach.

"I'll tell you once you tell me your finish time," his coach told him. "And if I don't think you did well enough to miss practice, you'll run it again at a better time."

Well, that was inspiration enough to get Devin's butt running right from the start!


Turns out Devin finished 25th in his age group!!!! There were more than 3,000 people who did the race! I think he finished in about 38 minutes. What a stud.

Mom and I decided to power walk the race all the way through. And let me tell you- she is a power walking machine!! We spent most of the race with my good friends Sabrina, Gina and Adrienne.

I found my twin (Gina) at the start line!

Mom and I finished at 1:00:24.9. I placed 233 for my age group! I am not sure if that is a good or a bad thing, but I'll take it.

Mom and I averaged 15:06 per mile, which isn't bad for racing with a bummed ankle!

Post-race, we got lost downtown and I couldn't find my car. So all-in-all, we shared a lot of laughs and probably walked a few extra miles.

Much love,
Ashley