The day I ran a 5K

That day was today, and boy did my training pay off :P

First off, a big thank you to the ladies that asked if I wanted to do this. I never would have even thought of such an idea but I love to follow along with others bright ideas. Also thanks to my sister who immediately signed up and paid the late registration fee when she heard I was doing it.

I know I didn't post yesterday. Somehow I got discouraged about bragging over my donut eating 12 minute run sort of training day. Go figure.

Now to the juicy part, the part you have all been waiting for, the day of the race.

I went to bed a 11:30 last night with a  4yr old in my bed. Not sure how that works for you, but for me, kids in my bed means fitful sleep for me. I woke up frantic at 3:00am thinking my alarm hadn't gone off and I was late. Once I calmed myself down I made it back to sleep but still woke up before my alarm, excited to get my day started.

I slept in my running clothes so I literally hopped out of bed, tied my shoes, found my coordinating bandana grabbed 3 spoonfuls of cottage cheese, 1 swig of orange juice and was on the road. Picked up a friend and headed to Kihei. We made it in good time and met up with our other friend and I began scanning.

I scanned the crowd looking for several things, those less fit than me so more prone to finish after me in a race, those that were doing cool stretches which I could mockingly imitate and those that were seriously into this whole running thing and that I should steer clear of. I was dismayed to see, and way to loudly announced, that I was one of the least fit people there. I guess there are not a lot of runners in the over 200lb club :)

But that early in the morning nothing can get my spirit down so I jumped in place, sang and generally got myself hyped up for the big event. The megaphone man called us to the start line and things got serious...seriously. We started on the road and I was like "woohoo, I can do this!!" then we hit the sand and it was all downhill from there. Not literally but mentally.

Running on sand sucks. Running on sand in shoes sucks more. Running on sand at a weird slope/incline when the tide is coming in sucks most. Wait I forgot soft sand, that sucks most. But you know me, ever the optimist, so I cheerily jogged along. Then I walked. Then I jogged. Then I walked. I developed a pattern that was working for me. As we got close to the halfway point I got a cramp at the top of my ribs on one side. From this point on it was all over. I turned into a 3yr old belligerent child and whined, complained and ignored all advice that could make it better. I yelled at others to be quiet and leave me alone. I am a huge baby!

I eventually began running again and as I my running friends predicted the ache had gone away. At this point I was mentally beat and convinced it would happen again so I put significantly less effort into the second half of the race. I soaked my shoes in the incoming tide and threw wet sand with my feet as  Iran. I hurdled a canoe that thought setting off during a race was a smart idea. Really I was an impressive running specimen. Towards the end I picked it up a bit and managed to finish at a slow jog with 5 people behind me.

At first I was hot and sweaty and my head was pounding and I was ready to curse the world. By the time I had cooled down I was puffed up, proud and ready to run again. My ego had returned and I was preening as best I could at my accomplishment.

That's how the 5K went. I did it. Next time I may do better. We'll see. I still hate running.

sidenote: When I say run you should picture someone jogging in slow motion. So slow a two year old could walk faster. That's my pace, my stride, my moves :)