My first 5K!!

On Saturday, October 3rd, I ran the Twin Cities 5K - my first ever 5k!!! I have been training for this race for several months using the couch-to-5k app for my iPhone. I swear by it. Anyhow back to the race. My dad ran with me. (To the left is our pre-race photo - before we got all sweaty) And my mom, Marissa, Jason, Zander and Mason cheered us on which was awesome!
It was a super cool experience. The race went out ~1.5 miles, turned around and came back the same route. Right out of the gate, we were packed like sardines. If it would have been this packed the entire race, it would have sucked. But it loosened up right away as we approached the hill. It was pretty gradual, but it lasted for over 1/2 a mile - ugghh! There were plenty of people linign the street and one home owner had some 80's music blaring. That was my comfort zone. I'm so used to running to music. This was the first time I didn't run to music, but I survived.

As we passed the 1 mile mark, a guy was shouting out the time.... "14 minutes." What?! It took me 14 minutes to run one mile?! Well, not really. It took over a minute to even get to the start line (when my chip crossed) AND that first mile was mostly uphill. So, I told myself to relax. After all, I wasn't worried about my time. I just wanted to run the whole thing, no walking. Also as we hit the 1 mile marker, the lead runner passed us. Holy crap, he's fast. Gotta keep moving. The runners thinned out as the race went on which was nice. I could not believe how many kids were running - and they were passing right by me. Some of them were just a few minutes behind the lead runner - crazy!

As we approached the "loop", I thought, 'halfway, I can DO this!' My dad talked a lot while we were running. Honestly, I didn't hear a lot of what he said with my ultra concentration and millions of things running through my head. A few times in the race, I had to mentally pinch myself... Holy crap, I'm running a race. A 5K, that's over 3 miles. Holy crap! Two months ago, I could not even run for 5 minutes. Then we passed a guy who was running and juggling at the same time. Crazy, but made me laugh.

As we kept running, more kids passed me, but I didn't care. Then, we hard a familiar voice - it was Jason. He had run up about a mile to find us and cheer us on. Then he ran back to warn our fans that we were approaching. I kept up the same pace pretty much the whole run. Soon, I could see the big hill - downhill this time. Not a fan of hills, neither uphill nor down.

As we came off the downhill, I spotted my fans - mom, Marissa, Jason, Zander and Mason!! Again super emotional! We passed them and I thought...'OMG, I'm almost there.' In my training I had only run for 30 minutes, so I got overwhelmed with emotion at the thought that this was the longest I had EVER run... EVER! At about 100 yards from the finish line, I picked up the pace and all of the sudden I found myself sprinting to the finish line. My adrenaline kicked in and I gave it my all at the very end.



I crossed the finish line with 39:07 on the clock. I was glad to come in under 40 minutes, but I knew that my "chip" time would be even better since I didn't cross the start line for a minute or two. I ran my first 5k in 37:40. So, what's next? I really want to do another race. I've gotta get me some winter running gear. The capris and t=shirt are not going to cut it in this Minnesota weather. It would be fun to do a themed race - like a Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas one.

Thanks Dad, for running with me!!