Victory

Hi Strangers! I know I know, before you begin fussing- it has been far too long. On another note, this past month we continued running. You would have been so proud- JMo and I completed a 5k. While I will not reveal our time- we met our realistic expectations of being under 40 min! It was our first 5k and all.

So prior we get a good nights rest, wake up early, make eggs, and dress in matching tye-dye. We hop in the car and drive to the Y, only to immediately get freaked out by all the people that legitimately look like runners. After a few minutes of positive thinking, we rush to the registration to pay our entry fee- so that we cannot back out. Briefly we get really excited about our free t-shirts, then we see these women running around- warming up. How on earth can you waste your running ability before the race? We walk a lap, and decide we are ok.

Standing in the back of the crowd, the whistle blows, and we are off! We run and run and attempt to drink water while running (way more difficult than it looks). While we remain near the back of the pack we finish! The second to best part of it was coming to the finish line and have these kids yelling- Go 4-1-4! You can do it 4-1-6! I almost burst into tears. We come near the finish line, and the lady tells one of us to pull in front of the other. Being the wonderful honey she is, JMo said- I wouldn't dream of it. So we crossed the line together.

The first best part was that JMo and I tied in our age range, and now have the first and second place trophies sitting on our kitchen shelves. (I'll leave you to figure out that puzzle)

SUCCESS!

On Sunday, I completed the 5k! :-) It was really exhilarating and I'm so thrilled that I was able to reach my goal. I managed to run all three miles too for nearly 30 minutes. And even though the 5k is over, I went running today...we'll see if this continues. But for now, I feel so pleased that we are accomplishing goals and following our plans. Jesse and Jmo are running their 5k in K-ville on Saturday - you can do it ladies!!! I'll cheer you on, even from hundreds of miles away. :-)

Counting Down

In six days, I will run my first 5K. I say run because I am hopeful that the training I have done for the past six weeks will pay off and there will be no walking involved. This morning, I realized that the 5K might be easier in some regards than the training...I will be excited, there will be other people there, two of my friends are running with me, it takes place on a beach. These are all things that might get my adrenaline going more than just running by myself.

The first several weeks of this running gig, I followed the plan from Runner's World well. First week - I ran two minutes, walked four. Second week - I ran three minutes, walked three. Third week - I ran four minutes, walked two. However, since week three, I have diverted slightly from the training plan. The fourth week I was running five minutes and walking one, which made logical sense to me, but afterwards, I realized the training plan has you gradually ease into that amount of running. Last week, I started doing seven and eight minute intervals with two minutes walking in between. I just got back from running and I ran two 13 minute intervals. This is progress, and it feels good.

My boss has run several marathons in recent years, and on Friday, I told her that I was running my first 5K on May 16. Her advice to me was to listen to my body. I'm glad I heard that advice, because on Thursday I had taken the day off as my knee was starting to bother me. I researched a little online and realized that I was feeling my patellar tendon, just below my knee cap. I decided a day of rest and ice with elevation might be a good idea. Unfortunately today while I was running, my knee felt the same way, so I will be icing it soon.

So that's the update. We still have not decided our challenge for May, but seeing as we are all doing 5Ks maybe it will be an extension of April running to reach our goals.