Monday, June 08, 2009

I Did It!! (The Long Version)

I am the prodigal blogger- I can't explain why,or give particulars, but I feel so busy lately. Just life. Nothing of note, nothing unusual, nothing that every other housewife and mother of young children doesn't do on a daily basis. As life goes, I find myself becoming more and more busy-busyness that I know will only increase with time. Good busy, but I'm still having a hard time managing my time. Finding time to cook, clean, meal plan, coupon, garden, exercise, laundry,ironing, grocery shop, do errands, play with my kids, take care of the pets, have a life, sleep... I need better time management skills. Still, despite sporadic exercise lately I did make time to run my first race!
It seemed almost anticlimactic by the time I did it. For the last couple/few weeks I have corrected many misconceptions about a 5k and races in general. It usually went something like this:
'How long is a 5k exactly?'
'Just 3.1 miles.'
'Oh, that's not bad at all.'

or

"Wow! 5 miles!'
'No, it's a 5K, so 3.1 miles.'
'Oh.'

Many instances of downplaying the feat or having others minimize it for me. Then one day Linda asked me when my marathon was. I sputtered, "A marathon?! No, it's only a 5k.' She asked what the difference is, I told her and tried to explain that people train forever to do marathons and that is a completely different thing. Like, something I hope to do someday, but...ha. No, 3 miles. Again, minimizing. I talked to Nana the night before the race and she also wished me luck on my marathon. I just let it slide.
So by the time I actually got there to do it, I kind of felt like... much ado about nothing.
Still, I was pretty pumped to pin my bib on. Timm had to work so he couldn't go but he snapped a couple of shots before he left.
I really hate this picture, but I am posting it for motivation to keep it up. It is evidence that although I have lost weight, there is still a lot to lose. Yuck.
Luckily I was able to drop the girls off at Molly's for the race. It happened to go through her neighborhood so it was convenient- for me, at least. I dropped them off and Molly drove me to the congregating crowd before the race. I checked in and got my timing chip and tied i ton my shoe. Walking through the crowd I felt like a total fraud. I felt like it was painfully obvious that I've never done this before, I wasn't a 'real' runner, evidenced by my lumpy 'Athena'-like non-runner's body. Luckily I did know 2 other people in the race and we started together. There were 800 runners!
When we started it was so cool- they closed one side of the roads, so we had 2 or 3 lanes to comfortably run through. I was of course in the back of the pack, which did have the advantage of a very cool sight. Hundreds of runners spanning the horizon, all heading for the same goal, the same finish line. There were even small children, from 5 and up.
My synopsis: it was great. It was hard. 3.1 miles is a lot longer than you might imagine. Even the slightest of inclines is brutal when you're running it, especially when you're out of shape and overweight. My goals were 3-fold: Run as much of it as I could, come in under 45 minutes, and push myself to my limit. I'm happy to say that I did all three. On paper, (or in pictures-) my accomplishment doesn't look like much. My time was 43:14, and I came in 734th place, out of 775. I beat 41 people, none of which were several octogenarians that passed me, young children, and a blind guy with a 4-foot pole leading the pack. Still. I worked hard. I can say I worked as hard as I could. In fact, at times I was dizzy, had chills, and felt a little sick to my stomach-probably signs of overexertion or overheating, but I'd be damned if I stopped or slowed down. I might not have had a spectacular performance, but I ran 3.1 miles, the same distance, the same as everyone else did. The good part is that as long as I continue to train it should be easy to continually improve my time! The next one I want to do is on the 4th of July, so my goal is to improve my time. By what, I don't know.
Molly brought my 2 and her 2 kids to the last turn to see me and cheer me on. Sebastian and Bella were holding construction paper signs for me and cheering. It definitely gave me a boost for the last hill right before the finish line. I also had a friend who ran ahead of me waiting for me at the finish. That helped too.
It was such a fun, festive atmosphere. It was like a party! The whole parking lot was filled with local businesses and their booths. There was a local radio station, Rita's Water Ice giving out free ice, baked goods, bananas, PowerAde, massage chairs, and on and on. People stayed for at least an hour or hour and a half after I finished, just socializing, glowing. It felt awesome to be part of the collective.

Sweaty, afterwards.
My shoes, laced the way Hannah showed me to help alleviate my Morton's Nueroma as best i can. (Basically a pinched nerve in my toes. Not fun.) Incidentally, these are some sweet Sauconys that are usually upwards of $100 that I got for $30- deal master!
my dues.
Ever since I started this attempt at running my right heel continues to bleed as it tries to form an effective callous. It keeps rubbing the same spot every time, so its taking a bit to toughen up. Luckily, I don't even feel it anymore. I'm concentrating more on the pinching nerve pain in my left foot and the resulting hip pain I have after I finish from my different leg lengths. (Apparently.) I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin...
So there you have it. A very detailed account of 43 minutes of my life this last Saturday. I can't wait to do it again. I haven't run since then, spending the time taking Advil and resting my hip. Tomorrow I hit the pavement again at 5 am.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm more than proud of you girl- you DID it!

Denise said...

So impressed. SO impressed!

Anne said...

Congrats! What a great accomplishment. Glad to hear that you've caught the race bug. Aren't they fun?!

Susan said...

I'm not sure I will ever catch the "race bug"!! Man, that sounds like quite an accomplishment. Can I just ride of the wings of "that's my daughter, and none of us are athletic, for the record"...good going, girl!

And what's with no comment from your Dad?!

I'm duly impressed. And proud. That being said, it's just not in my scope for imagination!

Sarah said...

Way to go! That's impressive, be proud of yourself and don't downplay it - any race is hard and you had the guts to go and do it. Awesome!

Fred said...

Congratulations on the race!! I am very proud of your accomplishment. I will be there when you run the marathon!! (Let's plan to run when at the Outer Banks... I'm sure you will slow to my pace...)

crystal said...

I popped over from Hannah's blog to say Go You! Good job on your race! And you'll lose the rest of those pesky lb's...you will, you will! Keep the faith, sister. (i'm in the post-baby trenches with ya)

Judging by the bloody shoe, you are among the ranks of addicted runners. Welcome! xoxo

michelle said...

Woohoo!!! I'm super-impressed! I think you got a great time. And I don't think you should down-play what a major accomplishment it is to go from not running at all to doing a 5K! I know I couldn't do it. 3.1 miles would be bad, oh so bad, for me!

I can imagine the excitement of being one of many runners in a race, and the post-race festivities sound properly celebratory (Rita's, yeehaw!). And you have another coming up so soon!

Those shoes are sweet, where did you get a deal like that?

I'm scared of your nerve pain and bleeding, I hope that goes away soon.

You're pretty much my hero!

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