5k

(I apologize in advance for the length of the this post. This is one of those posts when this blog is serving as scrapbook/journal for our family and it just might not be interesting to anyone else! So feel free to stop reading right now if you don't want to hear me ramble on about my first 5k experience!)

I've never been a runner. Period.

Growing up I was never the one chosen to take part in any competition that involved running and I steered clear of most sports that involved running at any length. Basketball or soccer- no way! Softball, I could handle, volleyball perfect!

Throughout phases of my life when I was exercising regularly, jogging/running was never a part of it. No matter how fit and strong I was, I really just couldn't make myself do it. If I did try, with each seemingly impossible step I'd grumble how much I just couldn't stand it and that I would rather be doing weights or circuit training.

Then my oldest best friend, Sara, ran a marathon. Yes, all 26.2 miles of it. CRAZY! I was in total awe of her (I do remember her being picked for all those running competitions growing up!) Being the wonderful friend she is, she encouraged me to give jogging a try, to just sign up for a 5k in the future and work toward it. Since most 5ks are fund raisers, there is always going to be a wide range of those competing, some are just "completing." She assured me that almost always there is an 80 year old mall walker at the race that isn't there for speed, just there to complete it. Ok, that sounded encouraging, maybe there is a chance I wouldn't be last!

I went ahead and picked a 5k to commit to and started doing the Couch to 5k program. I had heard good things about this program and was assured that it was completely do-able for most non runners and over weight ones at that. First stop was to a specialty running shoe store where I was professionally fitted for a pair of shoes. I can't recommend this enough! Professionally fitted running shoes will help save your back, knees and make jogging such a better experience!

Since my new Nikes came with the place for the Nike+iPod Sports sensor I went ahead and purchased the Sports Kit for my iPod. Great! I'm psyched up! I can do this!!

First Goal: train and just finish a 5k even if it was beside the 80 year old mall walker. I was feeling confident.

Then I started.

And I was miserable.

Seriously, I could barely run for about a minute and would have stop to walk. And that minute seemed like an eternity! I would think of my dear friend Sara, running those 26.2 miles and here I can't make it 1/4 mile! Who said this was fun?

But thankfully, about 60 seconds jogging is all you have to do with the Couch to 5K program at the beginning. You start SUPER slow (mostly all walking with short jogs in between for 20 minutes.) I tried to not to think ahead to those seemingly impossible 3.1 miles, just to focus on the 60 seconds or so I could do at at a time.

I was amazed at how fast my body took to it. It was hard, and I mean really HARD for this non runner! But each week I would jog a little more than I was walking and some weeks I went further than the training said. I was loving my Nike+iPod tracker which would tell me distance, time, pace and calories burned.

Slowly, I improved and I changed my goal to completing the 5k with no walking. Seemed really impossible but thought I'd set a big goal to try to reach.

And shock, I started to enjoy it! It was me-time, no constant "Mommy!" just me and the music on my iPod heading around our neighborhood.

Around week 6 I hit a big turning point. I jogged my first 3.1 miles (a 5K distance) with only a brief walk and my iPod clocked it as 30 minutes, 30 seconds and an average pace of just under a ten minute mile! For the first time I really believed I could do it! Not fast for all you serious runners out there, but for me this was BIG deal!

At the beginning of week eight, I ran a 5k in 29 minutes, 10 seconds with a pace of a 9 minute, 24 second mile. I felt on top of the world! With two weeks to go, maybe I could bring it down to around a 9 minute mile!!

Then I hit a major speed bump.

I decided to recalibrate my Nike sensor (they are supposed to be 90% accurate uncalibrated) but I started to doubt myself. Maybe the sensor is really off which is making me think I'm doing better that I really am.

Yep, it was off. My first calibrated run took me 32 minutes, 10 seconds. A full THREE minutes more than I thought. I was devastated! Those few little numbers were like a punch in the gut!

At that point I lost all faith that I could do it. My next 3 runs were horrible. I completely started psyching myself out and hearing a little voice in my head telling me that I couldn't do it. With lots of tears, I couldn't even run for 2 miles without stopping to walk. It was all mental and somehow I started to convince myself that this was a mistake, why didn't I wait until I lost XX amount of weight (which is, ahem, more than just a few pounds) before I started this training. I started to believe that not only did this seem impossible but maybe I didn't even want to do it anymore.

I thought about all those contestants on the Bigger Loser and how they not only run 5ks but sometime marathons. I can't give up now. I backed my goal up to again just focus on jogging no matter how slow and not walk during the race. Here just days before the race, even that seemed impossible, maybe my goal should be just completing it--even if I walk most of it.

A few days before race day I picked up my race packet with number, t-shirt and timing chip. Oh, boy, no turning back now! I was starting feel better, I stopped putting pressure on myself to meet any expectation, just to enjoy this as my first race. Sure some people think, what is the big deal? Only 3.1 miles, some people run that on a daily basis or more. But I tried to stop thinking of it like that. This is a big deal to me and just attempting and completing a race is something I never thought I'd do. This is a huge accomplishment to me, no matter how I do. I am going to be proud of myself!

Race day.

I had a decent night's sleep (I think I slept better than Joel did, he said he was too anxious! :) First thing I notice getting out of bed is my sciatic nerve was bothering me. No! Not today! I took some ibuprofen and had a Biggest Loser protein shake with soy milk, strawberries, organic yogurt and honey for breakfast and we were on the way. We pulled into the park before the race and I started to feel ill, really ill. Major nerves were kicking in!

The race was at 9 am and the temperature was around 50 degree with cold, high wind. I don't like being hot so this was perfect for me, but absolutely frigid for my cheering crew. My poor babies seriously could have used some gloves!

It's getting closer to start time and I am desperately looking for that promised 80 year old mall walker. No where in sight! No overweight middle aged people either at first glance. Great. Looks like I'll be the caboose of the run. All I'm seeing is high school and college athletes that are on course to be running in the next Olympics for all I know. Seriously, they are all doing these stretches and warm ups that I would never of thought to do. I feel so out of my element. I do a few stretches and start jumping up and down in place just to keep warm.

Stay focused. Goal is just to complete it without any walking if possible. I'm here for me, not for anyone else. It's a cool beautiful morning and I'm just going to enjoy it.

The gun fires and everyone is off. I read somewhere to stay at the middle right of the pack at the beginning so you don't get in the way of the serious runners but don't have to pass all the slow walkers. The crowd in front of me is off like lightening.

I see a woman in her forties who is of normal build and doesn't look like an olympian and I start pacing with her. I feel a tinge of pain with my sciatic nerve which sometimes can stop me frozen in my tracks, but thankfully it passes without causing me to stop. At about 3/4 miles I start to pass people who started off with sprinter's speed and now need to walk. I find another girl who I run with for a while and then pass her when she starts to walk.

By no means am I moving fast, but I'm starting to get some confidence as I realize I'm able to pass a few people just by going slow and steady.

I then realize that despite my efforts working on a very specific playlist order on my iPod, that it is on random. I start to get frustrated. I needed those songs in that specific order! Uggghhhhh! Ok, not a big deal. I decide I'll let it be rather than messing with it while I'm running, but I do manage to hit skip whenever any songs come on that I don't want to run to.

I'm enjoying the crisp air, and the sun is warming me up. I pace with a husky middle aged man for a while and then pass him and focus on a girl with the hot pink shirt to keep up with. I stick with her the rest of the race but her untied shoe about drives me crazy. She stops a few times to walk but then sprints head. My slow, steady pace and her sprint/walk combo keep us together.

There are a few rolling hills and we run around a lake. We pass people at the park enjoying the cool morning and I smile at each one thinking, "I'm a runner, can you believe it?!!"

Soon I'm seeing racers running back towards me. All I think is that they are done and are running it back again for fun? Are they crazy?!! Surely there can't be a middle turning point where we have to run all the way back to the beginning. If I'm not even half way done I'm moving at a snail's pace and I'm never going to make without walking!

Soon I see that we hit a turn around point and make it back to the finish line a different way. The turning point is actually close to the end. There is a water station so I grab a drink without stopping and feel really guilty for throwing the cup in the grass with the dozens of other ones, but I guess that's what you do. Ohh, I feel like a real runner now!

I see the finish line and there is a slight incline up to it. I've managed to make it without any walking and I can't stop now! Soon, my iPod congratulates me on completing the 5k, but I still have about 400 meters to go. Yikes! So that callibration was still off, not a good sign! That means that almost 33 minute 5k I did at home was under estimated and my time was really even higher! Yikes!

I'm getting closer to the finish line. A few people are cheering. I follow right behind the girl in pink and there is no one else around us. I hit the finish line and am shocked to see 30 minutes, 49 seconds with a 9:59 mile average! I did it without walking and am thrilled with doing it so close to 30 minutes!

My beautiful family greets me and after big congratulations, my freezing girls move on to begging for my post race banana.

I really did it!

I'm already thinking about when I will race again, but I'm going to try to race next time with less weight. I can't imagine how big the difference is running lighter! I would love to try to attempt a 10k some day!

I'm so thankful I didn't give up when it got hard and completed something that I never thought I would ever, EVER attempt.

All I can say to anyone out there is that is afraid to start, is go for it! Slow and steady will get you through and there is nothing like the feeling of accomplishment after facing and overcoming a seemingly impossible obstacle!