My sister totally (Sham)Rocks!

Today we got up pretty bright and early to go run in the Shamrock Shuffle at Madison's Monona Terrace Convention Center. We rode with my sister and her husband and had a lot of fun.

It was our first race of 2007 and my sister Michele's first race ever. It was a cold morning with the temp about 30 degrees at the time the race started. Jeff and Michele ran together and Mike and I took off to work on PRs. It was a fun race, but very large with more than 900 people running the 5K, in addition to all the 10K runners and 2 mile walkers, so the path was very crowded and difficult to get started.

This is a picture of Jeff, Michele, Mike, and I just before the race started. Notice we are still all smiling at this point!

Mike finished ahead of me (of course!) and I had a PR time of 33:01 (10:38 pace)with a place of 650/892 overall and 100/148 for my age group.

I am so proud of my sister today- she did just awesome in her first race. She was 826, 136/148 for her age group with a time of 39:55 (a 12:51 pace that beats her time form our first run last week by minutes per mile). After I finished the race, I doubled back to run alongside her and be the cheerleader - she didn't need me for that, she super-poured on the gas at the end and ran that last 400 yards or so at full tilt. I sure hope she got a little taste of the running fever and will keep at it.
(Tracy - you're next, are you listening??)

This is a picture taken by Mike. The girl in the orange top is my sister hauling ass across the finish line. Over her left shoulder is her husband Jeff in the grey sweatshirt and I am on his left in the yellow bike jacket.