This past weekend was supposed to be my big running weekend. The Mr. and I had signed up for 2 5k races (The Baltimore Running Festival's 5k on Saturday and Race for the Cure on Sunday). Some folks thought we were crazy but we didn't think it was a big deal since its only 3.1 miles. Come on! I run approx 2 miles 5 days a week. Running 3 miles back to back didn't seem awful.
So, we woke up bright and early Saturday morning and geared up for the Baltimore Running Festival's 5k. This was actually the day of the big Baltimore Marathon. The difference with this 5k was that this was described as "competitive" since only real runners come out to participate in the festivities. Kudos to all the marathon runners... and I'm even giving kudos to those that ran the 1/2 marathon (way to go, Suz!) because I could NEVER do it. Run for more than 30 minutes? Yikes! Although I have a 10k down on my list of 101 things to accomplish.
I know running is probably not a big deal to most people. Running has always been a challenge for me. I didn't play sports when I was young therefore never really had that whole athleticism built into me. Running is difficult! I tried out for lacrosse in 9th grade and faked an asthma attack because they wanted us to "warm up" with a 2 mile run! Were they crazy?! About 1/2 mile in, I got tired so I faked the attack so I could just walk over to the finish line. Great stuff.
So - over the years I have tried my hand at running. It really started in college for me. I found some running program in a magazine (maybe it was Glamour?) that eased you into running for 30 minutes straight. For a week, you'd run x minutes and then walk x minutes and the running timing would increase every week. It really helped.
After I accomplished running at a turtle pace (so I guess I should really call it jogging) for 30 minutes, I wanted to try for distance. I eventually made it so I could run 3 miles but it took awhile. Over the last couple of years, I've tried my hand at speeding up and being able to run up and down small hills. Anywho - I'm babbling. Here are my results from Saturday's 5k:
Distance: 5k
Clock Time: 00:29:05
Chip Time: 00:28:34 (This is the time that matters!)
Overall Place: 776 (out of 1785 runners)
Gender Place: 305 (out of 1006 females)
Division Place: 89 (out of 262)
Age Grade: 51.8%
Pace: 9:09.3
Not too shabby! I get that its not that impressive, especially since The Mr. ran it in 21 minutes or something like that but dammit, I am proud of myself. And I would like to note - for something being deemed "competitive", there weren't many super fast runners. I placed pretty high although the fastest female ran the frickin' thing in under 16 minutes.
Oh and the first half of the race was uphill! Through the ghetto!
Anywho - we overslept and missed the Race for the Cure the next day. Actually, we overslept by 50 minutes but still tried to make it on time but traffic was horrific and we not only missed the race (it started at 8am and we were still trying to get off the exit) but we missed the walk (it started at 8:45am and we were just parking and the line for the shuttle was about 50 people deep). Oh well - its the trend for that race. We do it one year and somehow manage to miss it (while trying to get there) the following year.
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8 comments:
Yay!!! I'm very proud of you!
It so much easier running on a treadmill than running for real. I can do 5 miles on the ol' treadmill, but get more on the street and I'm beat after 2 miles! :)
Sorry you missed the other 5k, but you'll make up for it.
Better than I would've done! I'm impressed lady!
GO KIM GO KIM!!!
Yes and you are right about the race being in the hood. I tried to take a short cut downtown and your freakalakin running friends held up the entire 33rd st for hours!! I got so frustrated I just turned around and went home. LOL
Nonetheless, I'm proud of you Forest. :-)
That's awesome! And how the heck did you get to personalize that comment underneath "leave your comment"? That's hilarious!
Congrats on the 5k!
I love to run but since breaking my ankle a couple years ago and then having back surgery last year, I hate to say that I think my running days are over. The elliptical trainer and I have become good friends now. :)
I for one used to love to do the Race for the Cure b/c its a great cause, but I think its getting too big now! I mean we missed it one year from the traffic when it was in the city, and we live there! AND people are vulchers for the free stuff (Im not excluding myself from this, Im just saying). So my point is that next year I really want to do the Baltimore fasitval one with you guys, but I cant say Im going to do any more Race for the Cures- is that messed up??
Found your blog and loved reading about someone else who is as proud of her high 20s 5k time as I am of mine. Wasn't it awesome to realize how many people out there are slower than you? (That sounds horrible and mean, but I was extremely pleasantly surprised to figure that out at my first 5k.)
Can't wait to keep reading.
Was your running program call the coach potato to 5k? Google it. It's awesome. Although I haven't actually tried it myself.
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