What kickstarted me (again).

So, there I was last Friday.  Getting ready for work.  Thinking about how badly I want to run a 5K again.  My thoughts drifted to last year's Monster Dash.  My thoughts drifted to Christa and Katie.  My thoughts walked me to Facebook.  My thoughts were the reason for this post.

So, there I was on Saturday.  Taking a break from cleaning my apartment.  Perusing blogs I enjoy reading.  There's a few blogs I haven't been keeping up with since before the wedding, like Can You Stay For Dinner?  I came across this post, which then led me to the original and full blog post on Flintland.

This blog post is what solidified my return and desire to run again.  Seriously, click that little link.  You will not be sorry you read it.  It moved me to tears because I am that girl.  I'm the girl who can barely run and I think it is amazing people like the writer are out there. 

If you didn't figure out from the above Facebook postings, Christa and I are running the 5K while Katie is running the half marathon.  If anyone else wants to run the 5K with us, let me know!  Katie had the genius idea today at work that if we had five girls, we could all dress as the Spice Girls.  Truly great idea.  So, I'm recruiting three more people - not strictly female.  We could do away with two people since we could be the Spice Girls post Ginger Spice leaving the group.  If this happens, I would like to go on the record and say I call Sporty Spice. 

Alright, enough of the Spice Girl tangent.  Moral of the story?  Read the linked blog post, for you won't be sorry.  I hope your week is going well.  Tomorrow is hump day. 

Disappointment.

Yesterday was the Monster Dash 5K.  I'm disappointed about it.  Let me tell you about it in more detail.

This is Katie, myself, and Christa pre-5K.  We were Sideline Superheroes for the costume contest.  Our costumes looked pretty awesome, but the metallic leggings were not good to run in.  They were falling down so much -- which is the cause of my disappointment.

Stupidly, we didn't do a test run in the leggings.  If we had, we never would have worn them.  Within the first 10 steps of the 5K, I knew the next 3.1 miles were going to be absolutely horrible.  The leggings were falling down.  I couldn't run because the leggings would fall down and I was afraid my ass was going to start hanging out.  I guess one good thing is that our glittery capes covered that up.  But, I spent the entire time pulling up the leggings and pulling my shirt down.  I tried running, but I would take about 10 steps and the leggings would be back falling down again.  I ended up power walking the entire thing, except for the last .1 mile.

This is the medal we got after the race.  I don't feel like I earned it at all because I didn't want to walk the whole thing.  I wanted to run it and beat my previous 5K time, but because of the stupid leggings, I couldn't run without them falling down to the point where my t-shirt wouldn't cover it anymore.  I'm upset with myself that I didn't know the leggings were a bad idea.  I'm upset I wasn't able to run the 5K.  I spent the entire time walking faster and faster, hiking up my pants every 20 feet, hoping I would get close to my previous 5K time. 

It probably would have been easier to run in jeans than those leggings...

Sorry for sounding like I'm beating myself up over this, but I'm really disappointed and upset about the whole thing.  I'm not looking for a pity party right now, I just really wanted to vent.  So, right now the medal is hanging on the wall above my desk, but it is not a medal I am proud of. 

That part is really sad because I was most excited about the medal for this 5K. 

Two more runs until the 5K

Well, make that one more run.  I've knocked one off my list tonight.

The 5K is fast approaching.  I'm not as prepared for it as I was for the first one, but I'm not very worried about it.  My philosophy is, run until my lungs are tired then walk for a bit.  Then, start running again.  It seems to be working for me because I'm going faster than I have been.

Also, I think I'm going to post my Lose It! daily summaries on a weekly basis instead of daily.  I'm thinking about being like Katie and only posting them when I go over my daily calorie limit.  I don't know.  Thoughts?

5K, done!

The 5K is over.  And it was harder/easier that I thought it would be.

I know you're wondering how a race can be harder and easier at the same time.  Well, I'll tell you.  First, here's what the route looked like.

It was cold this morning.  Sean, Katie, her husband Lee, and her brother Jason and I lined up at the front of the start line.  It was intimidating looking back and seeing nothing but people.  Once the air horn sounded all you could hear was feet striking the cobblestones.  It sounded kind of cool.  Jason, Katie, and Sean took off in front of Lee and I.  Lee and I had planned on running slow together.  We were okay with walking during the 5K.

Lee ended up running ahead about half a mile into it.  I was alright with it because for some reason, I really enjoy running alone.  Finally all of the faster runners passed me.  I was within a group of people who would run for a while, walk, and then run.  I was basically playing leap frog with some other girl because she would pass me and start walking and I would run past her and start walking.  It was entertaining.

I really liked the random people that would be cheering on the 5K participants -- the ladies and dog on a balcony, the police officers that were blocking off roads, and the other walkers and runners in the parks on the course.

I finally got to the Stone Arch Bridge and ran most of it.  Nearing the end of the bridge, I saw Sean.  Everyone else was already done and it was great to have Sean and Katie run to the finish line with me, even if Katie was cracking jokes.  Once I crossed the finish line, my lungs felt like they were going to die.  Katie then proceeded to tell me a funny story about what happened to her when she crossed the finish line.  I'll let her explain that one on her blog.  It's too personal for me to say it.

I finished the 5K in a little less than 46 minutes.  That is a rough estimation.  I should have been running the stopwatch on my iPod for a more exact time.  Oh well, next 5K I will.  

I am really appreciative of all of the support I've been given by the other four 5Kers, as well as everyone who gave me well wishes.  

I never thought I would finish a 5K.  I did and I'm super proud of myself. 

A long time coming

This 5K has been a year in the making.  I've been wanting to run this particular 5K for over a year. 

The 2010 Dave Ryan 5K for Special Olympics was advertised on KDWB last year when I first started working my first out-of-college "real" job.  I would be driving to work and would hear about the 5K on the radio.  Every time I heard about it I would think, "I could probably never be able to run a 5K, but I think it would be cool to do."

Then, I completely forgot about the 5K, or so I thought.  Sometime this spring I casually mentioned to a lady in my office that we should run the KDWB 5K in September.  Katie was training to run a 5K over Mother's Day 2011.  Then, I got lazy and decided in June that I probably wasn't going to be running the Dave Ryan 5K. 

Enter, lifestyle change. 

I'm incredibly nervous and at the same time excited about tomorrow's 5K.  Right now, more on the nervous side of things.  Mostly, I'm afraid I'm not going to be running all of it.  It's all a mental battle for me.

I'll do a recap sometime tomorrow after the race.