5K

A couple of months ago, I decided I wanted to try another 5K. I hadn't completed an official 5K since 2005. I don't know what has hit me over the past several months. I have been so focused on getting my body back to healthy and fit. It's become very important to me. I am not only doing this for myself, but I'm doing it for my daughters. I want to be healthy for them.

So I asked my running buddy, Claudine, if she wanted to do this race with me. She has been running for months (completing her first 5K earlier this summer), so I knew she'd be up for it. We found a race that was fundraising for a local autism research center. I jumped at the chance to participate.

Most of my running has been on the treadmill. I was only able to get out and do a couple of practice runs with Claudine before the big race today. I wasn't sure how well I'd do since hitting the pavement is a lot different than treadmill running. I usually treadmill run 2-3 miles at least 3 times during the weekdays, and then I do 3-4 miles on Saturdays and Sundays. So I knew I'd at least have the stamina needed.

Here we are before the race started.

We ran together for probably the first half mile. Claudine is such a good friend. My pace was just a little slower than hers so I had to talk her into leaving me in her dust. I knew she wanted to go for a personal best. I did too, but I knew I'd be holding her back since she is more of an outside runner than I am. For some reason, the first mile was the hardest for me. Once I hit that one mile marker, I stepped up my pace and felt like I was in a good groove. There were a couple of hills that I wanted to walk instead of run, but I forced myself to keep running. I wanted to be able to say I ran the whole time!  

I finally hit the 3 mile marker and couldn't believe that the finish line was UP A HILL! I felt like I had nothing left, but I found my inner runner and sprinted to the finish line!

Claudine had finished almost 2 minutes ahead of me so she and her hubby snapped a pic for me at the end of my race. I pretty much thought I was going to pass out at this point but I was just so proud that I had made it!

Here's our "sweaty pic" after we tried to cool down a bit.

Claudine was really proud of her banana hahaha........

I'm just so darn proud for doing this. I also made a personal best on my time and ran it in 33:25 minutes. That even beats my 5K times back when I ran a few races in 2004 and 2005. I've worked really hard to lose a lot of weight, so just completing this run today felt great. It's hard to believe that just 4 and half months ago, I was almost 40 pounds heavier and could barely walk around the grocery store without getting winded. Go me!

I'm already planning my next run. Can't wait to do this again very soon!