Tuesday, May 10, 2011

I DID IT!

I ran my first 5k last week, and I wasn't the last one to finish! Let's start from the beginning.


I was so nervous. Before I even left work, I was sweating. I arrived about 15 mins before the race started, and I was so glad that Andrew was there to calm my nerves and cheer me on. After saying a quick goodbye to him, we were herded to the trail where the race would begin. I tried to place myself near the back to try and stay out of the way of the other faster runners. Before I knew it, we were off and running.

Andrew wouldn't stop taking pictures of me!
I think I was telling him to stop in this one.

Our route took us south down the Keystone trail, with a turnaround at about Pacific Street. I loved the beginning of the race. After about half a mile, I found my pace and was encouraged by the many other runners surrounding me. It wasn't until the turnaround point that I hit my wall. I became really tired and more discouraged as the crowd started to thin out.

Laughing again at my personal photographer.

The rest of the way back was a mix of walk/run, and a lot of negative thoughts.I thought about how I wasn't a runner and this def. wasn't my thing. I thought about how I would never do this again, and about how I just wanted to walk the rest of the way. All of that changed as soon as I saw the bridge. I remembered that the bridge we had crossed on the way down wasn't so far from the finish. It was also the point where there were people cheering to encourage the runners to the finish. It was just the kick I needed to finish the race on a good note.

Do I really look like that when I run? Let's work on that.

As soon as I saw the time on the clock, I was so relieved. I was done! And I did it faster than I had in any of my practice runs. As soon as I finished, I felt great! I was so glad that I did it, and I was really proud of my time.

Go me!

I am already ready to run another one! And I think next time, Andrew and Sarah are going to be joining me. I can't wait!

4 comments:

  1. I am sooooooooo proud of you! You should come out to Cali in December if you wanna beat the cold and run the Venice Beach 5k with me!!! (:

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  2. way to go! time for a marathon.

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  3. Congratulations! I feel like I'm always "getting back into running." :-) Signing up for a race is a pretty good motivator!

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  4. SO proud of you and so excited for the 5k in July...but also a little nervous. I could use some training advice :)

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