This was the best part - seeing Blake and Anna cheering me on at the end of the race.
This morning I ran my first official race, the 5K Dexter-Ann Arbor run. I'm not positive why I haven't signed up for a race in the 15 years that I've been running. I used to run 10K easily, and I loved reaching that personal goal. I am, of course, all about goals and having something to work toward. Maybe a part of me felt like the pressure of a race might make running feel more like a have-to than a want-to.
That couldn't happen in this case. I signed up for the run on Thursday, so there was no training involved. I'd been thinking about it, but knowing all that we have going on with the house, I figured I'd just wait and see how I felt at the end of the week. I've only been running once per week, with Spinning and yoga filling up my other exercise time slots; however, each time I run it's between three and four miles, so it wasn't a question of whether or not I could do it. Rather, I wondered what my pace would be.
My watch is long gone. I can't even remember when I stopped timing myself, and even when I did, I was never very concerned about increasing my pace. I've always been a slow runner. I'm happy to cruise along at a 10-minute mile pace, meditating all the way. So, this was one of my goals today: determine a baseline pace. Along with that, I wanted to have fun. And, I just knew I'd feel good having finally run a race, no matter what happened with my time. Hopefully, I can run a bit more this summer, improve my pace in a few 5K's, and maybe I'll tackle a 10K as well by the end of it.
As expected, I DID have fun, even if my time was pretty slow: 29:33. At least it won't be that hard to see improvement!
Alicia ran too - she just started running recently and did 5k for the first time ever today!
The guys in their red shirts.
5 comments:
Congrats! Was it a fun race vibe?
Also: I've been meaning to add The Immortal Life of H.L. to my goodreads to-read list and was thinking of recommending it for book club next year. Let me know what you think when you're done!
Way to go. Looks like you had a beautiful day for a run. Nice that you had a friend to share the run with.
Did the guys plan on wearing "red shirts?"
Congrats, Kell! I think the races you don't plan for can be the most fun...you don't have time to get too nervous about them.
Good job! Isn't it silly how we get nervous even though we know we're more than capable?
Saturday is my first post-knee 5K. I'm nervous as heck! I'm going to take your advice and just determine a baseline. I'm sure it won't be near 29:33 though! :)
Hey, way to go! I had no idea you'd never raced before. You did great! Perhaps the racing bug has bitten you just a bit? ;)
Post a Comment