Checking off Goals

In January one of my stated goals for the year was to run a 5K.  I made it public (so had to follow through with it) HERE.

I've said before that I believe you can make the time for what is most important to you. I've certainly learned a fair amount since I started "training" to do this 5k. I think it's only fair to say that I was (from 2003-2005) a college athlete. My main thing was soccer. However, I did run cross country for one semester because they needed runners and they said they would pay for my books if I ran. Sort of a no-brainer there. I loved soccer, I hated running. So running that distance wasn't as huge of a deal for me as it is for other people. There are so many amazing people who really work hard to run this distance. Honestly, I think they are better people than I am for the amount of effort they put into their running.

Beauty all along the rail trail.

This winter seemed to really drag on for me this year, and I felt like I really needed an outlet. Hence, the desire to run a 5K. Since it has been ten years since I have done really any physical activity other than have four babies (and I'm pretty sure having babies doesn't help you run a 5K) I needed to train.

The nice flat rail trail where I run.

I made a serious effort to get out and run two to three times per week. This was not easy. Often I would wait until hubby got home from work, I would drive five minutes to the rail trail near our house, and run one mile. I could usually get there and run and get back in about 30-40 minutes. As it got closer to the date of my 5k I tried to run either Saturday or Sunday and do a longer two or three mile run.

Quiet place to be at 6 am

I'm not a morning person. At all. The race I signed up for was the 5K River Run in Wrightsville, PA (about 45 minutes from my home), and the race started at 8:30. So I needed to be leaving my house by 7 at the latest. So my dear husband suggests that I start running in the morning before he goes to work. That meant some mornings I was up and at the trail by 6 am. Honestly, I found myself enjoying it. I enjoyed the fresh feeling of the morning, the empty trail, and waking up in that way. I also saw a lot of animals at the trail, and the kids always enjoyed hearing what I saw each day. Sometimes a deer, groundhogs, indigo buntings, cardinals, rabbits, and once a turtle. So I did my best to train, but those morning runs left me exhausted for the rest of the day. I would usually end up super grumpy and need a nap.

Snapping turtle I saw during one of my runs.

The night before the race my stomach felt weird. Hubby thought I was just nervous. OR, I had a touch of stomach bug. The morning of the race I was a little bit sick in my stomach, but went out anyway. I am probably the only person left on the planet who doesn't have a GPS, so I used PRINTED MAPQUEST DIRECTIONS (I'm so stuck in 2004), which took me to Wrightsville. The only problem was they took me to cross the Wrightsville Bridge, which of course was CLOSED so that the runners can run across. I quick call my hubby in a panic, and I won't mention the unholy words I said, but it was not nice. I quick drove to a Turkey Hill, asked for directions, and thankfully, they got me there. I had to park far away because I was late, literally ran from my car to pick up a race bib, literally ran to the bathroom, waited impatiently, and ran to the start line holding my t-shirt. There was nobody there that I knew to hold my shirt while I ran, so I stuck the shirt in a little cleft in a tree. And the race started a few minutes later. It was not exactly how I envisioned this all happening.

The race starts downhill (which is sweet), then flattens out for about one mile across the bridge.

The Wrightsville Bridge: Photo from Civil War Album

(If you have time, you really should read about the Burning of the Wrightsville Bridge).

A really pretty photo of the bridge: Photo from Amtrack Vacations (of all places!!)

 Once you cross the bridge you loop around a little side street and then run back across the bridge. Now is the hardest part. I felt really good up until about mile two. I really slowed down for about 3/4 of a mile. Then I started to slowly pick back up the pace. The last four blocks is UP the steep hill that we lovingly ran down at the beginning of the race. Somehow I felt really good running up those last four blocks, maybe it was old soccer training coming back to me. I had really wanted to run in under 30 minutes, but I wasn't able to make it in that time. My official time was 30:37, which was still almost three minutes faster than any of my practice runs. I don't think being sick really made any difference in my time, although I did feel awful after I ran and most of the weekend. Somehow the adrenaline or something was able to keep me from not feeling bad while I ran.

My mom and nephew were there to cheer me through the finish line. Thanks for your support!!

I definitely learned a lot from my training/running experience. One thing I learned is that I CAN make time to run. However, I made time to run (often) at the expense of my family. To me, it isn't really worth it. I was often really grumpy and really tired on the days I ran, which of course affected my family. That doesn't necessarily mean that I will never run again. I think I'd like to keep up with running once or twice a month, but not much more than that. I would love to eventually run with my husband, but this will be years down the road since at the point someone needs to stay with our little kids while the other is running. 

And kudos to all the super-fast people out there. The first runner of this race came in at 18:24 and was just fifteen years old. There are a lot of really dedicate runners out there and I think that's awesome.

Now I can check that off my goals for the year!