Yesterday March 14th, 2009 was my first 5K race. I picked the Blarney Run here in Wauwatosa, WI which ended up being about 3-4 miles away from where we live.
I started training in January using the
C25K program. This program allows you to train for a race in 9 weeks. It just so happens that my last run was my 1st race. Each week you add more and more time to your running starting with only 60 seconds of running and ending with 30 or so minutes.
I set a pretty realistic goal of 34:01 for myself when I was on week 4 of the training program. After completing week 8, Darrin decided that my goal was too long and decided to change it to 29:00. I felt perhaps this was an ambitious goal, but decided to stick with it. My last run was on Wednesday and I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes.
There were over 900 people participating in the event on Saturday. One of the participants was Jamie who ended up being a great pace setter and motivator and Darrin my training coach. I had no idea there were going to be three hills. The beginning of the race started at the top of a large hill. And when you run down a hill at the start, you know you have to run back up the hill at the end. (I did include hill training, but not that large of a hill!)
After making our way past the halfway point, I still felt good and took time to notice everyone else running around us. There were still quite a few people running to the halfway point! I wasn't the slowest runner after all!
When we reached the hill I almost felt as though I couldn't finish, but muscled through the uphill battle. When we reached the top of the hill there was a backlog of runners who had also finished waiting in line to give their tags to the officials. Wow, 30:22 was my unofficial time and I felt great about it.
It felt good to accomplish my goal of completing a 5k and it is only March. What should be next a 10k, half marathon? Well, I will see where the year takes me! I just have to say thank you to Darrin who ran with me when he could while I was training and to Jamie who decided to run with us while visiting. It was great to have supporters along the way.
Yesterday March 14th, 2009 was my first 5K race. I picked the Blarney Run here in Wauwatosa, WI which ended up being about 3-4 miles away from where we live.
I started training in January using the C25K program. This program allows you to train for a race in 9 weeks. It just so happens that my last run was my 1st race. Each week you add more and more time to your running starting with only 60 seconds of running and ending with 30 or so minutes.
I set a pretty realistic goal of 34:01 for myself when I was on week 4 of the training program. After completing week 8, Darrin decided that my goal was too long and decided to change it to 29:00. I felt perhaps this was an ambitious goal, but decided to stick with it. My last run was on Wednesday and I ran 3 miles in 30 minutes.
There were over 900 people participating in the event on Saturday. One of the participants was Jamie who ended up being a great pace setter and motivator and Darrin my training coach. I had no idea there were going to be three hills. The beginning of the race started at the top of a large hill. And when you run down a hill at the start, you know you have to run back up the hill at the end. (I did include hill training, but not that large of a hill!)
After making our way past the halfway point, I still felt good and took time to notice everyone else running around us. There were still quite a few people running to the halfway point! I wasn't the slowest runner after all!
When we reached the hill I almost felt as though I couldn't finish, but muscled through the uphill battle. When we reached the top of the hill there was a backlog of runners who had also finished waiting in line to give their tags to the officials. Wow, 30:22 was my unofficial time and I felt great about it.
It felt good to accomplish my goal of completing a 5k and it is only March. What should be next a 10k, half marathon? Well, I will see where the year takes me! I just have to say thank you to Darrin who ran with me when he could while I was training and to Jamie who decided to run with us while visiting. It was great to have supporters along the way.
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