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I’m telling you people, I warned you about being let down. I really did. No complaining do you hear me? Okay, as long as we are clear.
On with a quick little (well, really an incredibly long and painfully boring) story. Let’s start at the beginning.
So two hundred twenty-five days ago I decided I wanted to do something significant. Something different. Something hard. At least to me. I decided upon my goal, wrote an annoying blog post, made many people think I was expecting a baby and moved forward.
For the next four months, I did okay. I worked hard at times, slacked off at times, felt incredibly motivated at times and felt incredibly lazy at times. I made progress, but slowly and sporadically.
But the end of May, I knew it was time to really get going and surprisingly, I finally kicked it in gear. I trained, I worked hard, and while I still had times of not feeling well or not being perfect in my training, I was consistent. And as we all know (and I try hard not to accept) consistency is the key. And it does pay off.
Two days ago, I ran my first road race. To so very many of you, you could run it in your sleep (which would be strange if you really think about it), but to me, it was a big deal. It was a 5K (3.1 miles for all of you reaching for your metric conversion calculators) and while that may seem simple, it wasn’t to me.
I will tell you that the first time I ran 3.1 miles, I was as slow as tar, or whatever is slower than that. It took me 45 minutes to get through those miles. Painful to admit, but hey, it is true so what do you do about it? I’m not a runner, I’ve never been a runner, I don’t think I’ve ever even wanted to be a runner. I played many sports in junior high and high school and while I was an okay player, running was just not my thing. And I definitely didn’t run distances. I was trying to remember back and I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever run more than a couple of miles at a time. To top it off, I’m a little older than I was in high school, I’ve had about four more kids than I did back then, I have a pound or two (or many) on me that I didn’t used to carry around and I have a little less time to train than I did at the ripe old age of sixteen. So don’t all of these scream ‘Run a 5K old lady!’?
Even though I had a slow start, the workouts the last three months really helped me to increase my speed and I brought my time down quite a bit. Anyone that runs, and I still don’t feel like I deserve to put myself in this category…yet, knows it is hard to bring down your running times. Luckily, when you start so painfully slow, you are bound to get better. And I did. I’ll tell you that I decided I would be thrilled if I could ever (and I mean in my whole life) run a 5K in under 35 minutes. So I was very happy that even before the race, I was getting a couple of minutes under that time.
Race day came, and lucky for us (Did I mention Jacob was running it too? Plenty more on that later...) a hurricane was headed to our area. Which was doubly fun because we were running the race in a little town on the coast of Massachusetts called Scituate. And it was going to be good friends with Hurricane Danny. It was raining a lot.
And it didn’t get any better. In fact, except for a few seconds after we arrived of very light rain, it was wet. Extremely wet. For the most part, it didn’t bother me, as I prefer wet to hot, but at the end, when every step felt sloshy and puddle-like, it was just gross. But rain or not, I did it. And I didn’t even finish last. In fact, I got a huge personal best and I was beyond thrilled. I was praying for under 35 minutes, would have been thrilled beyond belief to get close to 32 minutes and ended up getting 30:51. Not a big deal to true runners, but a huge deal to me. It was a wet, happy day for sure.
Two hundred twenty-five days ago, I set a goal. And while I was not the fastest or the coolest or the best, I did it. I finished the race. I did not stop running even for a second. I got a new record. And I have to admit, it feels pretty awesome.
But before I post a bunch of pictures, can I just tell you that my amazing husband is the best?! He really is. He is that cool and that amazing and that wonderful. He is one of those that could run a 5K with very little effort. But Jacob always wants to challenge himself and do better. So he decided to run the race with me. And he trained like a crazy person. When you are already running three miles in what I consider a very fast time, cutting time off is beyond difficult. But Jacob trained and trained and ran and ran and ended up getting not only a personal record, but shaving one minute and thirty-four seconds off his previous 5K. He finished within seconds of twenty minutes. He is one of the most motivating people I have ever been around and I loved training with him and running this race with him. He is amazing to me!
Okay, on to the photos. They are not fancy or pretty, but they tell a story that is super happy to me. I loved doing something that was hard for me. I loved knowing that even when I got off track, I had to keep trying. I loved finishing something I started. And believe me, I love that tomorrow I start on a new twelve-week training program. Because come Thanksgiving morning, I have another 5K to run. And my goal is to get below 30 minutes on my time.
Yikes, I’d better get hauling.
On with a quick little (well, really an incredibly long and painfully boring) story. Let’s start at the beginning.
So two hundred twenty-five days ago I decided I wanted to do something significant. Something different. Something hard. At least to me. I decided upon my goal, wrote an annoying blog post, made many people think I was expecting a baby and moved forward.
For the next four months, I did okay. I worked hard at times, slacked off at times, felt incredibly motivated at times and felt incredibly lazy at times. I made progress, but slowly and sporadically.
But the end of May, I knew it was time to really get going and surprisingly, I finally kicked it in gear. I trained, I worked hard, and while I still had times of not feeling well or not being perfect in my training, I was consistent. And as we all know (and I try hard not to accept) consistency is the key. And it does pay off.
Two days ago, I ran my first road race. To so very many of you, you could run it in your sleep (which would be strange if you really think about it), but to me, it was a big deal. It was a 5K (3.1 miles for all of you reaching for your metric conversion calculators) and while that may seem simple, it wasn’t to me.
I will tell you that the first time I ran 3.1 miles, I was as slow as tar, or whatever is slower than that. It took me 45 minutes to get through those miles. Painful to admit, but hey, it is true so what do you do about it? I’m not a runner, I’ve never been a runner, I don’t think I’ve ever even wanted to be a runner. I played many sports in junior high and high school and while I was an okay player, running was just not my thing. And I definitely didn’t run distances. I was trying to remember back and I’m honestly not sure I’ve ever run more than a couple of miles at a time. To top it off, I’m a little older than I was in high school, I’ve had about four more kids than I did back then, I have a pound or two (or many) on me that I didn’t used to carry around and I have a little less time to train than I did at the ripe old age of sixteen. So don’t all of these scream ‘Run a 5K old lady!’?
Even though I had a slow start, the workouts the last three months really helped me to increase my speed and I brought my time down quite a bit. Anyone that runs, and I still don’t feel like I deserve to put myself in this category…yet, knows it is hard to bring down your running times. Luckily, when you start so painfully slow, you are bound to get better. And I did. I’ll tell you that I decided I would be thrilled if I could ever (and I mean in my whole life) run a 5K in under 35 minutes. So I was very happy that even before the race, I was getting a couple of minutes under that time.
Race day came, and lucky for us (Did I mention Jacob was running it too? Plenty more on that later...) a hurricane was headed to our area. Which was doubly fun because we were running the race in a little town on the coast of Massachusetts called Scituate. And it was going to be good friends with Hurricane Danny. It was raining a lot.
And it didn’t get any better. In fact, except for a few seconds after we arrived of very light rain, it was wet. Extremely wet. For the most part, it didn’t bother me, as I prefer wet to hot, but at the end, when every step felt sloshy and puddle-like, it was just gross. But rain or not, I did it. And I didn’t even finish last. In fact, I got a huge personal best and I was beyond thrilled. I was praying for under 35 minutes, would have been thrilled beyond belief to get close to 32 minutes and ended up getting 30:51. Not a big deal to true runners, but a huge deal to me. It was a wet, happy day for sure.
Two hundred twenty-five days ago, I set a goal. And while I was not the fastest or the coolest or the best, I did it. I finished the race. I did not stop running even for a second. I got a new record. And I have to admit, it feels pretty awesome.
But before I post a bunch of pictures, can I just tell you that my amazing husband is the best?! He really is. He is that cool and that amazing and that wonderful. He is one of those that could run a 5K with very little effort. But Jacob always wants to challenge himself and do better. So he decided to run the race with me. And he trained like a crazy person. When you are already running three miles in what I consider a very fast time, cutting time off is beyond difficult. But Jacob trained and trained and ran and ran and ended up getting not only a personal record, but shaving one minute and thirty-four seconds off his previous 5K. He finished within seconds of twenty minutes. He is one of the most motivating people I have ever been around and I loved training with him and running this race with him. He is amazing to me!
Okay, on to the photos. They are not fancy or pretty, but they tell a story that is super happy to me. I loved doing something that was hard for me. I loved knowing that even when I got off track, I had to keep trying. I loved finishing something I started. And believe me, I love that tomorrow I start on a new twelve-week training program. Because come Thanksgiving morning, I have another 5K to run. And my goal is to get below 30 minutes on my time.
Yikes, I’d better get hauling.
A little bit of rain on the drive there. But isn't MA beautiful and green?
A quick picture right after getting out of the car. I'm not sure what look I was going for here.I'm freezing, no I'm cool, no I'm scared out of my mind. Um actually, can we just get out of this rain?
Um hello? Does anyone happen to know my number in sports?How did you guess? I took this as a very good sign.
Mr. Handsome. He looked as good starting the race as finishing.Kind of annoying. In a loving sort of way.
Once again, what is this pose? I heard once that if you lean toward the camera youlook more confident in your pre-race photos and like you are not about to fail a 5K.
Okay, not really, I was trying to justify whatever I was doing here.
This I like to call, 'Holy frijoles is that the finish line I see? It better be because I am about to die.I look like I am just intense and focused? Not so much. I'm seriously about to die! And my feet
feel like mobile puddles.' I sure wish I had a photo of Jacob at the finish line, but that would mean I
would have had to finish before he did. And very few people did that. Did I mention he is awesome?
But here he is after the race. Yeah, a little nicer than my post-race photo, but I'm not bitteror anything. Just impressed. And all full of love again for this amazing person I married.
Life.is.good.
Oh and PS. the other posts were just running times, or miles run or something to do with
my training. I really can't even remember them now. Sorry to torture. At least I didn't
just make you read the longest post ever. That would just be ridiculous.