I will never forget the day I was at my girlfriend, Sara's house when
she told me that she just signed up for a "Mud Run" the weekend before
our birthday. (Sara and I share the same birthday on April 13th.) It
sounded like so much fun but I didn't think I would be ready or that I
could justify spending the money to "run".
About two or
three days later Sara had posted to my Facebook page several runs she
was looking at doing including the "mud run". As I looked at what she
had sent me the only run that was affordable and not right around the
corner (seeing how I had to train for a 5k) was a color run called
"Color me Rad". So I signed up.
Right after that I
downloaded an app for my phone called "Couch to 5K" by RunDouble, so
that I could get ready. I hadn't ever been in a race that the furthest I
had ever ran was the mile that we have to run in high school for gym.
I
started running at the gym Week 1 of the app was so exhausting with a 5
minute warm up followed by 8 repetitions of 60 seconds of running, and
90 seconds of a brisk walk, and finish with a 5 minute gentle cool
down. I wasn't sure I was gonna be ready for any run let alone a 5k.
Every week got a little harder and every week I thought, "What did I get
myself into"?
I was really dreading week 5 run 3, as
it was 5 minute warm up, followed by 20 minutes of straight running then
a 5 minute cool down. TWENTY minutes of running......was this app
crazy. There was no way I was going to be ready for this in just 5
weeks.
So as the weeks went on I was checking out other
runs that were coming up, when I found someone selling their tickets
for the same mud run that Sara was in. So I "had" to get them. It
sounded like fun and I was looking forward to running with Sara.
So
I continued training and made it week after week, even passed week 5.
When another friend of mine told me about the "Biggest Loser 5k
Run/Walk" that was happening in Sacramento March 16th. I figured it
would be a great way to see where I was on my training. So the
Wednesday before the event I drove down to Sacramento with my two little
kids to get registered. I told everyone about the event I was so
excited. I even talked some of my friends to join me.
The
day of the run I told myself I was going to run the entire race, hoping
to finish around the 45min range. To my surprise I actually did run
the entire race and finished with a time of 33:25.4. Out of 1022
registered runners I finished 309 and 28th in my age group. I was so
proud of myself and at that point I was officially "BITTEN BY THE
RUNNING BUG"!
I have 4 more runs (including the mud run) all within the next 2 months. I'll keep you all posted with my blog.
