My First 5K

Whew!  I did it!!  I'm so pleased and glad that I finally tried.  I've run off and on for over 10 years but I've always kept to 2 miles or less.  I enjoy running but honestly I prefer weight training to running and would rather spend an hour at the gym lifting weights than 30 minutes pounding out three miles.  Earlier this summer I felt like I had stalled and wasn't making as much progress as I would have liked in my efforts to get back in shape.  So, I decided to switch things up and it's worked!  I've increased the time and distance that I run and feel more fit than I have in years.  As I began to see improvements, I decided to set a goal to run in a 5K and running in our annual city celebration 5K seemed like the perfect time to try since it gave me just over a month to train. 

The weeks seemed to fly by while I slowly made progress and by the weekend before the big event, I was able to run about 3.5 miles with only a couple of walk breaks.  It's been interesting trying to make time to run and still go to the gym in between everything else.  Brad's been great to help out and encourage me along the way.  The morning of the race, we all headed over - Brad ran with me too while pushing Winston in my jogger.  The race started bright and early at 7:00 am so we had to wake up Winston which he wasn't too happy about.  Once he realized we were going to a race though he brightened right up. 

We started out running at a steady, easy pace that felt great.  Brad told me to just run as fast as I wanted and he would follow (he can run lots faster than I can).  My two goals were to see if I could run the whole way without stopping and to do the race in under 30 minutes.  Brad stayed with me for the first 2 miles but then Winston started making a big fuss -  he wanted to run too - so Brad stopped, let him get out and run next to him.  I didn't notice that they'd stopped and just kept going.  Brad said Winston ran for quite a ways but they had an incident - he tripped and scuffed up his hands a little.  There were tears and hugs and Brad got him back in the jogger to finish out their run.  (I was glad the incident didn't include Winston needing to pee somewhere on the side of the road!)

There must be something about running in a race like that because even though I got tired, at the same time I still felt really good - like I could have run farther and maybe faster if I'd pushed myself a little harder.  I'm happy to say that I accomplished both of my goals!  I ran my first 5K in just over 29 minutes and didn't have to stop for a breather once.  I had to wait at the finish line for Brad and Winston but it was so cool to see them come around the corner and head my way with smiles when they saw me.  All in all it was a rewarding experience and I'm so happy and proud to have accomplished this.  I'm already looking forward to doing another one.