My First 5K!

This makes me feel better because as you'll read below, none of it's getting any easier!

OK, OK, my first real 5K race isn't until this Saturday, but I ran the distance of a 5K (and then some) for the first time on Friday.  I wish I could say it was awesome and amazing and the runner's high lasted all day but no.  It was horrible, awful, no good, very bad, etc. You get the picture!

See the week started without my Monday morning run.  We were having family over for an Easter dinner and egg hunt.  I was going to try to get up early enough to go and be back before family arrived but realized it couldn't happen.  I kept thinking I would go later that day, but I had to be honest with myself and accept that it wasn't happening.  I didn't want to go on Tuesday because I need the rest days in between and the best times for me to go and get a full workout is on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  So I skipped a day. *sigh* The first run I've missed since I started the Couch to 5K program 10 weeks ago.

So Wednesday arrives.  My goal is a minimum of 30 minutes but with a faster pace.  Ugh.  Why is this so hard I keep wondering.  But the time passes a little faster because I have someone to talk to but it's still so hard. I end up running for 37 minutes and covering approximately 2.75 miles.  I had to hop off to fix my shoes (too tight again) and to "run" to the bathroom and forgot to check my distance.  It may be slightly less time considering my time on Friday (see below).  Run? Check! Elliptical? Check! Weights? Check! Headache?? I got a headache after my workout today that turned into a migraine later on.  Not sure what that's about but it's so not cool. 

Now it's Friday.  Working towards running a full 3.1 miles, I start.  Wow, this is even harder today and I'm only a few minutes in.  After arguing with myself I slow down to a brisk pace for just a second but quickly turn back up the speed because my legs start to develop cramps if I don't cool down.  Ouch.  I run some more.  Argue some more.  I hit pause.  I hate myself.  I feel like I'm going to throw up.  What is the problem????  I feel like at some point some of this should be easier but it continues to challenge me every single run and I'm getting really discouraged.  I run again.  The time doesn't go by so slow as I'm reading/skimming magazines, which I've almost read them all and I don't know what I'll do unless I want to read the Golf magazines.  I take my towel off the treadmill screen and realize that as I've been flipping pages in the magazine, I've been raising the incline.  No wonder it's so freaking hard.  So hard that I'll fill you in on a secret.  I don't swear.  OK, let me revise that statement.  I have to be REALLY ticked off for you to hear a swear word come from my mouth.  The entire time I was running I was swearing in my head.  &*$^#*@   $*@#!  I can't even begin to explain to you how hard this run was.  Once I got to 30 minutes I told myself I could stop.  But I got there and decided to go a few more minutes.  I would reach that goal and decide to add on more distance. The next thing I knew I was nearing the 3 mile mark.  I know a 5K is 3.1 miles but I wasn't sure if it was something like 3.12 miles so I decided, what the heck, lets go 3.15.  Well if you know me you'll know I'm a little OCD about things so I couldn't stop until the timer was up to the next minute.  So I ran 3.16 miles in 45 minutes.  Oh, and I got another headache. 

Sadly, I experienced no runner's high.  None.  Knowing how great I'll feel after each run keeps me going sometimes, so to not even get the slightest runner's high and end up with a headache left me feeling defeated in some ways.  Later on that night I decided to google the average 5K run time for beginner's and was left feeling defeated again.  The average time? 27 minutes.  Ha.  I'm not even close.  I am proud of myself for where I am today.  I'm not ready to quit and can run for 45 minutes straight (ok minus a 30 second breather on Friday).  It's amazing to think how I felt running the first few weeks of the C25K compared to what I'm feeling now.  I never thought I'd be where I am now.

So my first real 5K race is in 6 days.  I've been contemplating all week what my run schedule will be like this coming week. I'm going to attempt to run at the park on Monday and Wednesday to get a feel for running outdoors without setting a speed on the treadmill.  Then I think I'll do a mile or so brisk walk on Friday at the gym and then my race on Saturday will be just like it's my third run for the week.  I'm trying not to psyhe myself out and just reminding myself that I'm not racing anyone else and it's only my regular run only with a bunch of other people that I'm imagining are going to be waiting a very long time for me to finish!  My sister's husband will be running with me and I've forewarned him that I'm slow but I think I'll be thrilled just to finish, especially if the course has hills which I'm sure it does.

Wish me luck!  And be on the lookout for my first post race blog hopefully with pictures and all!