one year later

One year ago on Mother's Day I ran my first 5k without walking.  It was incredibly tough, I was worried I wouldn't make it to the finish without taking a break.  But I did it.  I finished my first 5k in 33:31.

This year I wasn't sure I'd get to participate in the Mother's Day run.  My sister graduated from KU this weekend (congrats Lorin!) so I knew there would be some back and forth.  But I so badly wanted to participate.  It would be the first race I had repeated since I started running, so it would be the first time I could really see just how far I've come.  So even though it would make for a rather long day, with Christopher's support I signed up for the race.

In all honestly I wasn't sure how the run would go.  I know I'm faster than I was last year, and beating my time by several minutes wouldn't be a problem.  But I have been so up and down with running the last few weeks.  I have some big high's intermixed with some big lows.  Some days I can't convince myself to run a mile.  And running in the Georgia humidity was really discouraging.  So at this point, going sub 25 minutes (which has been my 5k goal since completing the Truffle Shuffle in 25:17) seemed possibly out of reach.

But I lucked out again with the weather.  The temp was right around 60 degrees.  And there were a limited number of hills.  Not quite as flat/downhill as the Trolley Run, but nothing to really complain about.  I lined up between the 7 and 8 minute mile markers.  That was very different from last year.  Last year I was packed into a big group like sardines, this year I could have done cartwheels in the space I was waiting in.  It was a nice change, and kind of crazy to be so close to the start line.

I didn't wear a Garmin or my phone, so I had no idea of my pace.  I tried to pick out someone who I thought might be going a pace I could keep and fell into a decent stride.  When I passed the first mile marker the guy called out 7:50.  So far so good.  Somewhere in the second mile I got passed by a set of twin girls, I thought they were maybe 7 or 8 (turns out they were 11) but they were killing it.  Seriously, it looked effortless as they blew past me, and they were so stinkin' cute.  Which is probably good since I was getting my butt kicked by a couple of 11 year olds.  I passed mile marker two at 15:45.  If I wanted to go sub 25 I knew I couldn't really slow down.

The last mile was tough, but I have definitely learned something about 'racing', for myself anyway.  If I want to get faster, it just is never going to be comfortable.  Sure, now that I've been pushing harder, running a 5k at a 9 minute mile pace doesn't really seem that hard at all.  But if I want to keep improving my times, I have to learn to be ok with being, well, miserable :o).  Ok miserable might be a bit harsh, but you get the idea.  I could go out, run the 3.1 miles at a pace that is comfortable, do good and finish.  No problem with that at all.  But pushing myself to my limits and suffering through a bit of pain is always worth it when I set a new PR or beat my time goal.

Back to the race... as I rounded the corner to the finish line and finally caught a glimpse of the clock it read 24:42.  At that point I sprinted to the end.  And when I say sprint I mean I sprinted in my head, but my legs didn't really follow suit and I'm not sure I went all that much faster :o).  I crossed the mat at 24:53.  Sure I kind of wanted to die, or puke, but it felt good.  Incredibly good to know I beat my goal and set a new PR.

Later in the day I looked up my official time, 24:48, a 7:59 pace.  So technically not quite as fast as I did the Trolley Run a couple of weeks ago, but I'll take it!  Overall I finished 57/3065 (last year I was 638!).  In my age group I finished 8/295.  I am so thankful I was able to participate in the run.  It is amazing to me to see what I have accomplished in a years time.

18 months ago exercise, running, working out, none of those things were part of my daily life.  If I can do it, anyone can.  You just have to put your mind to it.

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