Gumbo Gopher 5K

On Saturday we hosted the first Lowry Gumbo Gopher 5K. Earlier in the week I had ran the course with my friend Courtney who had been doing the couch to 5K training with me. We decided we wanted to "try it out" and see if we could make it. It felt great for both of us and I felt this sense of pride that I had accomplished my first 5K a few days earlier than the actual race.

Saturday morning arrived bright and early with an alarm at 6am so Brett and I could get the last min. stuff ready for the race. What we thought was going to be 15 people when we first started planning the 5K turned out to be near 150 people in the small town of Lowry with the population of 11. I think it's safe to say that Lowry was a booming town on Saturday morning. All the proceeds from the race are going to support Ovarian Cancer Research in honor of my mother-in-law who is battling ovarian cancer. We are proud to say that we raised almost $4500 which does not include the 1200 we spent on purchasing the t-shirts that each runner/walker/biker would receive. I'm still in a bit of shock when I think of how much money was raised from a race that we thought would have 15 people.

Sonja (my mother-in-law) was unable to make it to the event due to being in the hospital but Brett and I took our computer and all the pictures from the day and brought them to the hospital to show her later that night.

Not only did I never think we would have so many people register to race and so much money raised but I also never thought in my life I would do any sort of running race. I know to many of you a 5K is nothing but after 11 weeks of training for this I'm proud to say that I have now accomplished a bit over a 3 mile run and I didn't die doing it. I am going to continue to run and hopefully find some more 5K's the be involved in to help keep me motivated.

Thanks to everyone who supported me in this challenge and to everyone who helped make the Gumbo Gopher 5K a reality. I also want to thank everyone who participated here in Lowry and those who participated from their own location (Illinois, Oregon, and other cities in South Dakota).

We hauled people to the starting line in horse trailers.

How a SD race starts...with a shot gun!

Bikers leading the way.

The leaders for the runners. 3 Huber boys. Austin (white shirt) won first place, Clint (green shirt) got second, and the good-looking guy in the gray (my hubby) got 3rd! Way to go Huber's!

Finish line! I was sure glad to see this!

Running for our wife, mother, mother-in-law, and grandma!

(pictures taken by William, Amber, and Naomi)