My First 5k

In honor of the St. Patrick's Day 5k coming up soon, I thought I'd go back to a blog I wrote many moons ago. Namely 3 years ago when I ran my first 5k, you guessed it the St. Patrick's Day 5k.

Here's a blog rescued from my long abandoned Myspace page.

My First 5k
So I did it. I bit the bullet and ran my first 5k. I've been training a month or so... not technically time for the 5k but I went for it anyway.

I got up bright and early to meet my running buddy and get warmed up... only to get a lovely phone call telling me his foot was swollen from hives and I'd be hoofing it alone. Thanks, Barak.

Undaunted I loaded up my mp3 player with new music downloads and headed off to the race.

I kick myself for not bringing my camera when I hear the bagpipes as I'm walking from my car to the starting line... then I wonder where the hell I'd put it for the run.. so no pictures.

I sign up and get my number attached. Yay for 38! Then it's a bunch of standing around waiting to start. I'm scoping out the crowd and there's a ton of little kids, that gives me hope that I won't come in last in my first race. This will be shortlived.

There's a program at elementary schools that get bonuses for every student that trains for a race so these little kids are all better runners than me. I rock.

Anyway it's time for the race so I stretch and warm up and set the mp3 to shuffle and hear Lily Allen start singing about her pothead brother as the gun goes off and I start my slow but steady pace and I'm good.

I look around and I'm passing people that are slower and I'm working on my breathing and all that jazz... I'm doing okay.

This lasts a little over a mile, which is the most I've run so far in my training anyway. Then I have to slow down and walk a bit... I figured I'd have to at some point just because I'm not conditioned yet.

So I slow down and the people I passed pass me now and I'm working off a calf cramp but I keep going and perfect a half jog half walk stance.

By now I've noticed that I selected the wrong music for this run. My normal gym mp3 mix has fast paced schlock like Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears to keep the tempo up... I'm currently listening to Yo La Tengo and Bright Eyes... who are great but not that up tempo.

So as Rachel Yamagata starts to play I start to hit the wall I've read about... at this point there are people along brookside cheering for the runners and watching us as we loop around. I came undeniably close to offering one of them my first born if they'd just carry me to my car.

But I didn't. I high fived the leperachaun in the road and kept going. I hope I didn't hallucinate him in my runner's fog.

I pushed through and kept going... although my left foot did go numb, so that hampered my thoughts of running the last leg.

I can tell I'm getting closer cause I can hear the master of ceremony using his bullhorn to cheer on the returning runners. Soon I'm there and he's talking about my red sox hat as I cross the line and make a beeline for the water tent.

So I finished my first 5k. My goal was to finish in an hour... and I ended up finishing faster at a whopping 45 minutes. I know it's not a great time, but it worked for me... since I'm still training.

I grabbed some juice and skipped the beer tent... it was too early for that and headed home.

Now I'm laying in bed with throbbing shins and the knowledge that I finished my first 5k... now I can keep at it and hopefully beat this time with the next one.

I wonder if there's one in April.

I read that and marvel at how far I've come. I would never skip the beer tent this time... and I'd probably offer sexual favors instead of my first born for a ride to the finish line.

We'll find out when I do the Aquarium run in May.