3.1 miles later

For all of you keeping up, I ran my first official 5k this weekend. Here's how my weekend went down.

First, let me start with training last week. As you know, I ran 2.5 miles Monday and then promptly threw up. Tuesday, I decided on a different approach. My dad told my mom she'd be able to do it if she could run on the treadmill at 6 mph for 15 minutes. Of course, she'd run one before, in 27 minutes no less. Well, I decided to try that. It's faster than I normally run (I'm really slow!), but if that could indicate how I'd do, I thought, why not? Well, I barely made it 10 minutes! Very frustrating! Then, I woke up Thursday morning intending to do a short run, but it was 18 degrees outside, so I went back to bed, determined to run that afternoon at lunch. I did manage to do that and went two miles (1/2 mile run, 1/2 walk, etc.) to make it light since the run was Saturday morning and I didn't want to wear myself out. Again with the hills. It's right by my house, so it's convenient.

Then Thursday evening Kayle came into town! I had to work Friday, but we figured it would be fun for her to get a head start on the weekend! We loaded up on carbs, but also on some sangria. Yum! It was fun, great night. I worked all day the next day, except for lunch where we had pretty good Chinese food. Details, I know. After work we headed to Tulsa! My parents live there and she was coming to see where I grew up, etc, plus, the race was in Tulsa. Nothing major to report from that night. She got really nervous, as did I. Could I do it? I'd barely managed 2.5 miles...

By the way, my dad said it's good to have three goals. One you should be able to accomplish, one you want to, and one that is rather unattainable. My three goals were:
Goal 1: FINISH running the whole thing
Goal 2: Do it in less than 40 minutes
Goal 3: Finish in less than 35 minutes

Get up early (for me) Saturday morning! I was up shortly after 7 a.m. so I could get ready and eat some oatmeal before the race, which started at 9:30. It was warm that day, around 40 degrees at race time, except for that Oklahoma wind Kayle and I always talk about! 18 mph, blowing in the direction of half the run. Woo! And, I also discovered how hilly the path was! I was thinking it wouldn't be too bad, but that part of town has it's hills. We get our packets and then go hide in the car for a while. Nick shows up. It was good to see him since it'd been almost a week! Terrified, already nauseated, we go line up! Here we go!

Gunshot! Since this was such a low key race, people didn't necessarily line up right. A lot of people walked from the beginning and it took almost a whole K to get to where you could run at your own speed (a little less for me since I'm slow!). Mom, Dad and Kayle stayed a few minutes ahead of me the whole time. (Nick sat this one out.) Well, I ran. Close to the halfway mark, we go up this killer hill! Honestly, you were so close to walking when you were running because it was steep! By the time I got up it, I was feeling sick again, so I grabbed some water to rinse the taste out of my mouth...and partly just to have the thrill of throwing the cup down! I didn't stop at all. Of course, when you go up hill, you eventually get to go back down! Once we turned around, we were heading into the wind, but fortunately it wasn't blowing too hard at this point and fortunately the hills weren't as bad from this way. I was at 26 minutes at 3k and figured I wouldn't be able to get to the finish in 14 minutes (reaching goal 2). I kept running. Making it to 4k seemed to take forever! I was even counting down the streets because I knew which street the finish line sat on. Anyway, I made it there! One more to go! I have no idea how I propelled my way through that last k. I was feeling really sick and wind picked up a few times. Additionally, I kind of felt drunk at this point. Like things were moving a little off and I just felt...not completely coherent (but not un-coherent). Maybe you understand. When I finally saw the checkered flags, I just starred at them...waiting to get there but unable to run any faster. Most importantly, I was telling my body to hold off vomiting (and falling over) until I crossed that line. I keep looking for my group, hoping to hear inspirational words, but I couldn't. (They were there yelling though, btw.) Anyway...I DID IT! I made it! I ran the whole thing! Of course, I'd barely taken a step after when I started to gag. The lady pushed me forward and said "I'm sorry honey," while pushing me determined to keep me in the right order. I made it a few more steps before hurling the half an orange I ate before the race. Finally, my mom rips off my tag on the number and gives it to the lady...like I cared about that right then? Water and a little sitting helped me recover. I'd done it.

My official race time was 35.25 too! I'd reached one and two (and got pretty close to three, but I don't care about that)! Kayle came in around close to 32, I think, and my parents crossed at 31 minutes. So the time I'm working with is 11 minutes 20 seconds per mile. It's slow, but I'll work on it. Mom and Dad took us all out of some IHOP after, but I didn't want to eat anything "heavy," so I got a salad. Kayle and I were zapped the rest of the day and didn't want to get up to tour the town or anything. That night, we got to go to this free dinner at Santa Fe Cattle Ranch because they were opening a new one in town. We all loved it! If you have one near by, go! Everything I sampled was tasty! I deserved a steak dinner!

The night was fun, spent drinking and watching Will Ferrell movies. Kayle, Mom, Dad and I went on a 2 or 3 mile hike the next day, which loosened up my back, but made my legs hurt more. Then Kayle and I headed back to Stillwater, so she could go back to Norman. I had a really fun weekend!

I decided to take today off and may swim tomorrow and start back up. Kayle's getting really into now, which is great. She's already got another 5k lined up for us and has a pretty solid plan going for her training. I got back Sunday to a broken (fried perhaps) computer. It won't turn on. I'm pretty sure my power supply is shot. I'm actually posting this from the public library! I miss my computer already! I can't post pictures for that very reason, although I have a few to share. I will hopefully have a working computer next week. Nick is building a new computer and told me I could have his old power supply, so hopefully we can make that happen to save me some money.

Well, this is a terribly long post, so I shall leave you with that. I ran a 5k! Now I just have to add some swimming and biking beforehand...and try to keep my breakfast down! Wish me luck!