5K A.O.K.

Does anyone remember this post?

My number one goal on the list was to run the 4th of July 5K race. I have to admit, if I hadn't been holding myself responsible to the blogosphere, I probably would have backed out. But even if no one remembers that I made this goal, I remembered.

I only started really "training" a month before. I ran 3-4 times a week, but never without walking a few minutes. I woke up the morning of the 4th completely unprepared. And nervous. It helped having S's sister B there to run with. And the weather was cool and overcast (and it even rained a little bit!)

I still remember we were sort of just standing there waiting to start and all of a sudden people started moving (we hadn't heard a thing) so I thought, well, here goes nothing! It was awesome to see this sea of people in front of me. I was finally doing this! I hit my stride pretty early and stayed with it the whole time. And I realized that I was actually passing a lot of people. I looked down at my watch after the 1st mile and it was just over 10 minutes. I thought, no way! The fastest mile I had run so far while training was 12 1/2 minutes.

As I hit around 2 1/2 miles, honestly I felt like I was going to die. I tried walking a few times along the route but I actually felt worse when I started walking. So I just kept going. Luckily, there was a water station and also my old young woman's leader was standing there with a hose. I saw her and said "Hey!" She saw me and said, "Hey girl!" And then blasted me in the ear with the hose. It felt awesome.

I turned the corner and saw the finish line in the distance. The clock read 30 minutes. I was dumbfounded. I figured there must be a mistake. I passed the finish line at just over 32 minutes. B crossed the finish line a few minutes after I did.

I am so proud of us!



I've heard people say that racing is addicting and I get what they mean. I can't wait to do it again. And when I started to feel self-conscious about my running style, I thought, "Hey, I'm up here and I'm doing this!" It didn't hurt to have people along the parade route cheering us on. I know they weren't cheering for me, but it still felt like they were.

Stats:

Place--537 out of 859
Division place--37
Pace--10:26
Time--32:24