First Ever 5K

To begin this post I would love to tell everyone about my running journey so far. When I'm at work I look forward to going home and doing my run. My latest course has been up Sahara at a small incline and then down Hollywood to Charleston, down Charleston at a small decline and then I hit Orchard Valley and head home. The first time I ran this course I felt pretty good about it. My body loved the burn and the sweat that came with the run. However the next time I did that course I was confused as to why I was running. Often times when I run I wondering why am I doing this when I HATE it so much. Why am I putting myself through this hurt and not being able to breath? But when I get home and can breath again I realize how much I actually love the feeling of exercise and pushing myself! For me running is a love/hate relationship! Most the time those two emotions are simultaneous and I still can't tell you exactly why I'm running, except that part of doing a Sprint Tri is running a 5K at the end, so I guess I better be able to run! I have never been one to really push myself physically, and I feel like for once I'm doing that. I feel like I'm for once in my life setting physical strength goals and I love the feeling I get when I accomplish them! They may not be huge goals but they are goals that once seemed out of reach and undoing altogether! So on to my point of this post...

On Saturday our Stake had it's second annual 5K fun run. Last year I thought about going but it was early in the morning and I wasn't really exercising so we didn't go. This year since I have been doing some running and preparing for the Susan G Komen 5K and also a Sprint Tri, I figured I'd do it and just see where I stood. I enlisted Enrique to do it with me since he has been my running helper. (whenever I run I always update him with how far and my time and he continues to encourage me, which makes me feel good!) So we leave my house around 6am and head over to the soccer fields where the race is being held. We were there quite early so we sat and talked for a while until more people started showing up. There were quite a few people from my ward there so I didn't feel out of place at all, however I was thinking, "oh dear, I have to run and look like crap doing it in front of people I know.... Yikes." So there were about 15-20 people doing the 5K and about 20 or so others doing the fun run... Not very many, so I wasn't as intimidated... We started the race which consisted of 3 laps around this huge field. Honestly I thought the whole field was 3.1 miles, but apparently it was only 1mile. Go figure! The course was field grass and freshly mowed I might add. Within 1/4 of a mile the grass was causing my asthma to flare up, however it gave me incentive to get pass that area of the field so I could breath again! When I completed the first lap all I could think was, "Wow, that was tough, only two more to go." Of course that thought nearly killed me so I tried to focus on small things like, breathing, my music and stretching my arms. At the completion of lap 2 my thoughts were "okay, only one more to go, you can do this!" If you could have read my thoughts you would have thought I only had a mile left of a marathon, Clearly I'm not in that good of shape! As I got closer to the end I realized that I was in third place and that was pretty cool. I crossed the finish line at 30 minutes and 37 seconds. When I heard that I was so disappointed... I have a course around the neighborhood I run that is 3.25 miles and I had just finished that a few days before in 28 minutes and 40 seconds, how on earth did I do so bad at only 3.1 Miles. After the initial negative thoughts went through my head I then realized that I had actually finished my first ever 5K, I was still alive and breathing (after a few puffs of the inhaler) and I felt a great sense of accomplishment! Who cares if I didn't finish in the time I wanted, I had finished! When the awards were passed out I got First Place for Females, I finished third overall, and got First Place for females in my age group.... I felt pretty good going and getting my ribbon and medallion, and Chris felt pretty good about it too! He kept telling some of the guys from our ward, "I didn't run the race, but I still have bragging rights because my wife beat you!" Deep down it felt good to see my husband so open about being proud of me! I must add that the only reason I won for the Females is because the super star runner of the stake chose to run with her boys instead of compete...

Thank you Ashlee....

As a side note, the consensus is that the course was really between 3.69 and 3.8 miles instead of 3.1. This is based on two Nike plus trackers and one Garmin tracker. So in reality I feel pretty good about the time I got at that mileage! We'll have to see how I do this Saturday at the Susan G, I'm sure this course will be more accurate and there will be about 1,000 or so more competitors!!!