So I completely forgot to mention last week that I ran a 5K on May 14. I know, who forgets to brag about something like that, right?
Actually, I went into it with the intent to walk most of the 5K. I was mostly supporting my husband, who has been training for the past 3 months and decided the Komen Race for the Cure 5K was going to be where he put himself to the test.
During that 3 month period, Aaron taught himself how to run, lost 20+ pounds (he’s totally kicking my butt in weight loss), and was ready to take on his first 5K. During that same time frame, I went to my bootcamp classes, ran a couple of times, lost a couple of pounds, and well…didn’t do anything nearly as impressive as him.
On the day of the race, I lined up with the non-competitive runners. I haven’t had the chance to run more than a day here and there lately, so I didn’t expect that I was even going to make it further than a few blocks without needing to stop for a walk. Aaron was ahead of me with the competitive runners. He didn’t expect to place in the race, but he wanted the timing chip so he could see his exact finishing time.
When the bell sounded, I pressed play on my iPod, took a deep breath, and started the run. I was helped by the amazing energy of the people around me – they were all so happy and excited. (Me at 8am? Less so.) The first few blocks were a bit of start and stop as the crowd needed time to thin out. I tried to stay to the side because I was a slower runner and didn’t want to be in anyone’s way.
Quickly I realized my iPod was going to be trouble. It has a problem where the songs will “scramble” when the headphones are in, meaning it’ll play a few seconds of the song, then scramble the song on high speed for a few seconds, then shift to another song, where it does the same thing. So I found myself jogging slowly while trying to hard reset my iPod, put the headphones back in, and try again. It gave me a few songs in a row before it would scramble again, but those few songs were better than nothing. I need music to distract myself from the reality of running.
We made the first turn, and I was surprised I was still running. Then the second turn came two blocks later and I was hurting, but still running. A huge hill was in front of me, though, and I realized I couldn’t make it up the hill. I stopped to walk, a little disappointed, but also reassured by seeing others slow down to walk up the hill.
Once we reached the top of the hill, I decided to go back to running. My lungs ached at the greater effort again, and although I couldn’t hear it over my music, I’m sure I sounded wheezy as I gasped for air. This part of the run was slightly downhill and after a couple of minutes I finally fell into a comfortable pattern. I was still working hard, but I wasn’t hurting.
The next leg of the race took us around a local park. My side was starting to hurt again, so I made a deal with myself that I’d walk when I reached the north end of the park. I kept that agreement, slowing down to walk along the entire north end of the park.
As we made the final turn for the (long) home stretch, a guy in a lobster costume passed me by as I was walking. I’m being passed by a lobster? Surely I can run again if this guy in a full-body costume is still running!
I forced myself to run again, but at this point it was getting hard. During the final stretch I took a couple of short walk breaks, just to catch my breath, and then threw myself forward into running slowly again.
I didn’t see my exact time when I crossed the finish line, but I believe it was somewhere around 44-45 minutes. Not a great time, of course, but only slightly longer than the 5K I trained for back in the fall.
While I had planned to walk most of this 5K, I instead ran most of it and only walked a small portion. I was exhausted at the end, but proud of doing more than I had intended.
And Aaron? He finished at 30 minutes, which is a very respectable time for his first 5K run. I’m proud of him for accomplishing his goal and getting so fit in the process. Hopefully we can both find time to run during the summer and sign up for other 5K races.
Again, if I can do this, anyone can. It just takes baby steps to do so. Had you told me five years ago that I’d be running in a 5K, I would have laughed at you. Yet it’s happened, thanks to making small changes here and there.
