My First 5K - Spooky Sprint 2010

Are we friends on Facebook? FB has made it waaaaaay too easy for me to post lil' family tidbits that I'd normally blog about on here.

Like when my friend, Tiffany, and I decided to do a practice run? On the actual path for the 5K?  And ended up finishing an 8K run instead, accidentally?

Yeah. Um... I've only ever ran on the treadmill at the gym. Had NO idea how much distance 3.1 miles would cover, but we had a copy of the map and just kept a lookout for "Aviation Rd" so we'd know when to turn around.

Of course, it's too much to ask for a street sign here in Podunk. So... we kept on running. And running. And finally, after about 2.5 miles, we decided to turn around.  Only reason I figured out how far we ran is coz I looked it up on Google Maps when I finally got home!

***

This was on a Thursday, two days before the race.  When Saturday morning rolls around, it brings along a 70% chance of rain. Greeeeaaaaaat.  But I've come way too far to back out now.  It may be a race, but I had NO ambitions of winning or even finishing in the top half.  All I wanted to do was cross the finish line.

And hopefully, not be last. But hey - I'll take what I can get.  I've never been a runner and after 3 weeks of training, one can't be too picky.

So... here we are, standing under an umbrella before the race starts:

Dette, Jamie and Tiffany

Counting down

Home stretch - Mama and Numbnuts running beside us!

Me, trippin' out that I actually did it :)

After a quarter of a mile, I got a little surprise. Hubz piled all three boys in the car with him and Mama and drove down a quarter of the way to cheer us on. The police told him he couldn't park there, but changed their minds when he told them what he was up to.

I wish you could've seen the Little Shit. He had his hands in the air and hollered, exasperated, "Go FASTER!" *lol* Cracked me up :)

In the end, I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest and I was praying, "Please, please, please don't let me fall over. Please let me just get to the finish line."

And I did. Never mind my goal of finishing in under 35 minutes. I finished my first ever 5K in less than 33.

32:54

I wonder if I'll be able to get under 30 minutes for my next one... Guess we'll see!

»»  read more

Gonna Huff and Puff and Go for a Run

Four weeks ago, the idea of running a 5K just didn't seem likely.  I don't even walk from my front door to the mailbox - I'm the one who stops by on my way home, driving on the wrong side of the road, to pick up that lovely stack of junk mail and bills.

So when my friend, Jamie, brought it up one Kinder morning - I literally laughed out loud.

But then... the idea hung around wispily before it finally started to dig into my head. I've been frustrated with my workouts - or more so, with my lack of results.  I'd work out 4-5 times a week - each workout beginning with a half hour of strength training, followed up with 45-60 minutes of cardio.  Then I'd come home to top it all off with crunches or push-ups.

After 3 months of this rigorous schedule, how much weight have I lost? A whopping FIVE pounds.

"It's your calorie intake," you suggest. I purchased a kitchen scale to weigh my food, counted my calories even if I went out to eat. (The MyFitnessPal app on the Droid X makes counting calories SO easy!)  I averaged about 1,300 calories a day.

*sigh*

So, I figured now's a good time as any to change things up a bit. I stopped going to my RIPPED and Zumba classes and started hitting the treadmill.  On the first day - I was lucky to finish 3.1 miles in under 45 minutes.  But I kept going, and finally gave myself a goal:  To finish my first 5K in under 35 minutes.

I wasted a week mulling over the idea, which left me three weeks to train.  How did I do?


(To be continued...)

»»  read more