Archive post from September 2011
I DID IT! First 5K ever, and I ran the whole way! 39:59 to be exact, but I still count that as fast for me.
All that fear for the past three days, all those vague thoughts that I couldn’t possibly do something like this, the fear was locked in all the way up to the last few seconds before the run started. When I got my race number to pin on my shirt, number 480, for one wild moment I thought, “Is that what they think I weigh?” Seriously, I was loopy.
And then the starting gun went off, and I started to jog, and all the panic just went away. It suddenly quit being a huge undertaking and became just another run, just like I’d done for weeks before. And I felt calm and not afraid. And I stayed that way for the whole five kilometers.
My goal for this race was to jog the whole way, with no walking or stopping, and I made it. I did have a few weak moments, like when we were running through a secluded woodsy trail and I saw a few joggers slow to a walk. I thought, “I could do that if I wanted to,” but I wasn’t tired yet so I kept the pace. There were some hills I hadn’t known about, but I’d practiced on inclines before and knew to take really small steps up the hill and kept going. Then there was the group of helpful people passing out cups of water at mile 1.5, which I accepted gratefully (note to self: do not jog, drink and breathe at the same time unless you want a very thorough nostril enema). I got a few gulps of water and managed to keep jogging through it all. With refreshed nasal passages.
I finished the run with a second under 40 minutes and a big bunch of hugs from my husband and kids who were waiting by the finish line to see me. Yay me!
Now that it’s all over, it seems silly that I was so stressed beforehand. The degree of fear was not remotely worth the level of difficulty of the actual event, and I’m starting to feel kind of stupid that I let myself get so worked up about it. I guess that’s just part of facing the unknown.
Kind of makes you wonder what else you can do that’s not as scary as you think it is.
I’ll do a second 5K in the next month or two. Now that the shock value is gone, and I’ve already got one under my belt, I’d like to see what it’s like to do a 5K without the drama.
Until then though:
WOW! I can’t believe I actually did this!