My First 5K Race: Complete

I did it. I set a goal, I put in the hard work, and I made it happen. My first 5K race is now in the books, and it went great.

This morning we left the house a little latter then I had wanted, but we would have been fine if I didn't turn the wrong way going to the zoo. Once we figured out it was the other way we turned around and not long after that traffic came to a stand still. I had 15 minutes 'till race time and we were sitting in traffic. We were only about 2 minutes away (driving time), but with traffic as slow as it was it would have taken about 20 minutes. 'Would' being the key word there. I say that because at 7:55am (5 minutes before it started), traffic started moving right before the turn we needed to make into the zoo. When the car in front of us made it's turn I was pressing on the gas and feeling relief that we were going to make it. That's when the police officer stepped in front of us and started moving the barricade directly in front of our car, and motioning for us to go straight instead of turn. I'm thinking to myself, I'm in the race. The race is that way, not that way! But she was just doing her job. I was pretty frustrated, but it was my fault for not getting there earlier. So, I got out of the driver's seat and walked the rest of the way there. Amanda lovingly took over driving and some how found a parking spot near by.

The walk to the starting line was probably good because it gave me time to warm up a little. I made it to the start by following some other people who were walking there, and once I arrived I was surprised to see so many people. The road was crammed with runners rearing to go. I tried to find the middle of the crowd and squeezed my way in. I heard the whistle blow (I think it was a whistle) and everyone around me started inching their way forward.

Now, I'm pretty competitive. I know I said that all I wanted to accomplish was finishing the race, but I wouldn't have been happy with that. I wanted to get a good time. I knew I could finish. Heck, I wanted to come in first (although I knew I wouldn't). So, when we started and I had to walk past the start, and continue walking after that, I wasn't all that happy. But I moved off of the road and onto the grass at first in order to run past some people. When I was finally able to run it felt pretty good. All of the sights and sounds and people made this run unlike anything I had ever done before, which also made the race go by pretty quick.

At my first mile there was a lady there yelling out times. "10:38!"
10:38?? I lost about 2 and a half minutes in my first mile. Oh well. At the second mile marker I was at about 18 minutes and something. I was very glad when during mile 2 my breathing was still slow. The wind was blowing pretty good, and it was sort of cold. I probably should have worn my long sleeve shirt, but it didn't take me long to warm up. There was quite a few hills at the zoo. I knew there would be, but I've never been able to train on hills. It wasn't too bad though. Once the hills went down I didn't hit the breaks 'cause I figured that would just use more energy. Instead I let 'em carry me down as fast as they could. The real bad part about running at the zoo was the smell. Especially when I went by the rhinos (which, strangely enough, happened to be the only animals I saw).

Amanda was able to be there, thankfully, moving down the race path three different times in order to cheer me on. That made the race ten times better, knowing that I had her support.

Before I knew it the finish line was approaching. I tried to run harder, but it didn't make that much difference. If I would have realized how close it was I would have finished somewhat stronger, but I'm happy with it.

I ended up finishing at 25:34.83. That's a pace of 8:14 per mile. The list that is up now at rivercityraces.com shows the first 1,000 finishers (I think they are going to update the rest soon) and I came in 237th place. That's at least the top 23%, so I'm proud of it for my first race. Next time I think I'll arrive earlier and line up closer to the front. The overall winner ran it in 15:54! Amazing.

I would like to keep running, and keep improving, so I'll probably have to schedule another race to keep me motivated. Maybe I can persuade Amanda to start running with me. I'll let you know how that goes.

Race Day!

It's race day ladies and gents. I'll be leaving the house in 20 minutes and heading up to the zoo. I went to Fleet Foot Sports yesterday morning to pick up my race number (1276) and free Throo The Zoo t-shirt.

I read an article on Runner's World last night for people who are running their first 5K. It recommended that you line up at the very back where the atmosphere is relaxed and stay to the side where you can get out of the way and take walk breaks. Even though this is my first 5K, I'm not going to do either of those things. The runners out there all have different goals, so there's no shame in walking some (or all of it), but I really want to finish with a good time. I'm not going to line up in the very front because I don't want to get in the way of faster runners. If I did that I might be tempted to try and keep up which will just cause me to run out of fuel too soon. I'll try and line up somewhere in the middle of the pack and start off slow. Once some space is made between the runners I'll try and take a moderate pace until the end. If I have anything left in me I'll try and finish fast. We'll see how it goes. Amanda (my wife) will be there cheering me on. It is very sweet of her to wake up this early on a Saturday to support me (I love you baby).

On that note, the next time you hear from me I will have finished my first race. Until then...

"You have a choice. You can throw in the towel, or you can use it to wipe the sweat off of your face." -Gatorade Ad

Motivation From Your Own Personal Arnold

My very first 5K is just under 72 hours away! I hope I am prepared. I registered for the race a couple of days ago, so there's no turning back now. I just finished my run and the sun was just beating down on me. I usually run about an hour earlier than I did today, so I'm not used to so much heat. Thankfully the zoo run will be at 8am, so we should finish before the sun starts to heat up the pavement.

Today I ran 3.6 in 28:22, which is 7:53 per mile. That's an improvement of 27 seconds per mile from last time! Sweet. It was a tough run though. During my run I thought over and over again about stopping early, or taking a walk break. I wasn't sure if I could finish. One thing that kept me going was that I knew that if I finished my run that I could use that experience the next time I felt like quitting. I would be able to tell myself, "Look, you know you been here before. You wanted to quit, to stop and whine like a baby about how hard it is, but you didn't. You kept going and you finished. It's hard, but you can do it because you've done it before." After a few of those experiences you begin to trust yourself when the tough side of your conscious (the one that looks like a tiny Arnold Schwarzenegger doing bicep curls on your shoulder) says you can do it.

Well, that's my life lesson for today. Until next time...

"Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it's all about." -PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian