Today was a day circled on my calendar for some time. I wanted to get in an official 5K run before the end of the year for two reasons, to have a goal for the end of this year, and to have an official time and a measurable achievement to try to improve upon in the upcoming year.
I ran in the Vern's No Frills 5K this morning. I was surprisingly anxious, I guess a little worried about my first run, because runs with other people have a tendency to feel like race. I showed up super early to register and ended up just sitting in my car trying to stay warm (it was 40 degrees this morning). As I sat in my car I watched these amazingly thin and fit looking people walk by my car to register and I thought, great, I'm going to finish last by a longshot. But I was able to catch myself and remember that my goal for this run was not to beat or impress a bunch of strangers; rather, it was to prove to myself that I can run 3.1 miles. My anxiety subsided as I thought less and less about the other people. Interstingly enough, there was a young girl, maybe 12 years old, and she was ahead of me, she'd slow down to a walk until I was about to pass her, and then she took off in a full sprint, it was like a game, and made it difficult to keep in mind that it wasn't about the other runners. I jumped out of the gates a little faster than I would have liked, but ultimately I just had to slow down to a walk a few very short times to catch my breath a little bit. I unofficially timed my race at 35 minutes and 30 seconds so I was running at about 5 mph, which is a wonderful pace for me.
I think I'll sign up for another 5K here in the Georgetown area in February, the Cupid Chase around Valentine's Day. And my next goal after that would be to run in the Statesman Capitol 10K in April. A 10K is a totally different beast so starting in the new year I think I'm really going to have to beef up my training regimen.
Life is great right now, and it's wonderful to say that I am a runner.
Sometimes I find myself wondering how dedicated I am to making a healthier lifestyle for myself. Do I really go the extra mile or try to get by with the bare minimum. I've always had a great ability to make excuses and rationalize away any blame or shame coming from my own conscience. This morning I got back in from a run and I think I've convinced myself I'm no longer making excuses. I typically run between 5:15 and 6:00 AM. this is usually the coldest time of day. This last weekend I wanted to get in a quick jog in the morning and boy was it quick, it was only 18 degrees but I still ran for 10 minutes. Yesterday morning my thermometer said that it's 33 degrees but the weather man says the windchill feels like 22 degrees and I ran for 30 minutes. Today the weatherman says it's 30 and feels like 25 degrees and I ran for 20 minutes. I find that my decisions to tackle my run regardless of weather is encouraging because the winter is still very young.
It's been sometime since I've updated this blog, and sticking with this blog reminds me of what it takes to stick to running as well. I've been falling in and out of cycles of running and then taking a few days off. Ultimately I just need to get up and go, and I need to do the same thing with this blog.
I'm getting excited about my upcoming 5K. I've been trying to run a 5K for practice every two weeks or so. Below are the dates and run-times.
11/8/09 - 45 minutes (approximate)
11/12/09 - 42 minutes
11/22/09 - 39.5 minutes
My actual 5K is December 19th, so I'm hoping with more conditioning and the adrenaline of running with 100 other people, I can improve on my best times yet.