Girls on the Run is so much fun

Well in anticipation of the big race this morning I did take 1.5mgs of ativan last night and I think it helped that i was so tried but soon after Rob went up to bed last night I was asleep on the couch. I woke up around 12:30 and went up to bed - Rob had set the alarm for me so I needed to be in bed to hear it. I didn't have the best night of sleep - it was the sleep I get when I know I have something to do the next day - waking up about every 30 minutes to look at the clock. The alarm went off at 6:25 and I was able to sneak out of the bedroom with disrupting to much - Ellie was already up in bed and we did a quick brush of our teeth upstairs and headed down for breakfast and to get dressed. I made us eggs on toasted bagels and I had some cheese on top. We dressed in our layers and got to school just on time.
It was nice, the school arranged for a school bus to drive all the girls and their running biddies down to the race in Bridgeview. Ellie and I sat up front and talked a bit but mostly watched out the window. We were one of the last groups to arrive but we were still on time. Ms. Ortiz, the GOTR sponsor teacher, passed out the girls numbers - all the girls were number 1. I pinned Ellie's number on her t-shirt and we went to find the East Prairie flag - many pictures were taken and the energy was incredible for that early in the morning. We all warmed up together - one of the teachers from the school led the crowd in the warm ups. We made our way to the start line and we counted down from 10 and the race was on.
Ellie was a good sport and we walked together for about the first mile but then we did alternate between walking and jogging - I did the counter pressure on my port. It was inspiring - along the route on every block we passed there were volunteers cheering us on with the GOTR cheer - Girls on the run is so much fun. It was nice to have the miles marked - it was a victory passing each of them. Thank you all for the positive collective blow - the rain held off until we were making our loop into the stadium - we had about 1/4- 1/3 mile left. We ran into the stadium together and then walked the lap around - not enough room to pass people. We finished the race in 51.45 minutes - not too bad a bit over a 17 minute mile. We were given a medal as we finished the race and they were projecting the finish line of the jumbo-tron tv. We all did a slower cool down walk out and got our water and snack bars - there were a number of sponsors there passing out "goodies". Ellie and I walked through and she was able to get a couple things.
By the time we got back to the group flag the rain was pretty steadily coming down and Ms. Ortiz said we could make our way back to the bus. It took longer to make it out of the parking lot than it did to get back home. We had plans to meet up with Mom and Dad for a celebratory lunch - Uncle Bill even joined us. We went to Gullivers and had a very nice lunch and visit. Ellie was super pumped to show off her goodie bag loot and to share our video clips from the day. I was exhausted - I had closed my eyes several times on the bus ride home and was looking forward to taking the sofa bed out for movie time and taking a nap. Which is exactly what we did when we got home.
Nick picked out Mickey's Christmas and we got all the blankets out and cuddled on the couch - Ellie abandoned us to play downstairs and Rob went out to the garage but Nick and I were snuggle bugs. Rob came in and made the kids popcorn and made us some tea. None of us were terribly hungry but I made Ellie a chicken kiev for dinner and Nick had his hot dog from last night. We finished watching their movie and then we got ready for bed - I think Nick is getting sick - he has a stuffy nose and is a bit irritable. Rob is working on a mini video from the video clips I took today and put it to We're All In This Together (Ellie's request for music from High School Musical) - I thought it was an excellent choice. Ellie was so excited to send an email to family with a few pictures from her run.
Rob took Nick up to bed and we might have had major breakthrough tonight - Nick usually stays dry overnight but he woke up and told Rob he had to go to the washroom tonight - that was a first. He will go to the washroom if cued but he has yet to figure out the urge and act on it alone - mini yeah - this could have been a huge day of successes. I ended up putting Nick to sleep and Rob put Ellie to sleep - we both were finished a couple minutes apart.
I don't think I have introduced Plum yet - that is what I am naming my port - Plum. Just as Scarlett is red - well Plum is purple but looking so much better than earlier in the week. I was so thrilled that Plum didn't pop out along the race route today especially when we decided to run. This race was my 2 month goal and I have achieved my gaol - woohoo. My 6 month goal will be to do the Spring race with Ellie in May and run more of it and improve our time. Hopefully in 6 months I will be running without Scarlett and Plum but I will do it with or without them. I am hoping for a good night sleep and hoping that my nap didn't make this impossible. Visualising my healthy and continually healing body and the new normal me -whomever that shall be (but I am pretty sure I ruled out runner today), Tree