Recap Ladies Run 2008

Stefaan and the boys and I arrived in Kortrijk on time, but the sports hall was already bustling with people - you could tell there were a lot more participants than last year. It was also hot, supposed to hit 28°C (Belgium was apparently the hottest place in Europe this past weekend - how weird is that?) I went in to get my race number and chip, stopped for a picture by the Ladies Run poster:

Then it was outside to the parking lot to line up for our warm up, as in the past two years, very enthusiastically led by Steve (he was one of the coaches on the Flemish version of "The Biggest Loser"):

Once the warm up was done, a slow shuffle to the start:

The fun thing about the Ladies Run is they have a "dream team" of well known Belgian women who train together for it and run it right along side the rest of us mere mortals. One of them is our news anchor, Martine Tanghe, here being interviewed in the upper left corner of the picture:

Martine has been doing the Ladies Run since its first year in 2006 (just like me!). Someone new this year was Roos Van Acker, who is a TV presenter. My kids are really into "Peking Express" right now (the Flemish version of "The Amazing Race"), which she presents, and we were all thrilled to see her in real life (she is the blond lady in the middle):

Here is everyone ready for the start...I was a bit further back!

And we're off! There was a lot of weaving in and out in the beginning to get started, but the first half of the race is pretty much all down hill, so I was really pleased when I made it to the three kilometer mark after just 18 minutes. My goal this year was simply to improve my time from last year so I kept checking my watch at each distance marker to make sure I was doing okay.

As we approached the center of Kortrijk, with all the people standing on the sidewalks watching, I was so parched, I wished I could just follow the ladies who were doing the 5 K and be done! But no, I had committed to the 11 K which meant I had to keep going over the cobblestones and start the return trip back up the hill to the finish. I just kept plugging along, desperate for the next water station!

Finally I hit the 9 kilometer marker and could tell by my watch that I was going to make my goal of improving my time from last year. Stefaan and the kids were waiting for me at the beginning of the last kilometer, and they took this picture of Martine Tanghe and Mieke Boeckx who were "just a few minutes ahead of you, Mom!"

Here I am in the very last stretch...it was a hot race which made it hard. But I just kept thinking to myself how grateful I am to be able to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving forward.

Hot, sweaty and rather shaky, I crossed the finish line and saw I had met my goal - but the first thing on my mind was getting something to drink!!!

The Ladies Run is a well-organized fun race...it was the very first race I ever did (the 5K in 2006) and I am already looking forward to doing it again next year!