The Ugly Sweater Run

*****I’ll be writing most of this week and next as I am on VACATION!  Check back for holiday related stories, tips and issues!

 

This weekend I ran my second 5K! I had signed me and the hubby up about a month ago purely based on the awesome swag they were giving away.  Instead of a t shirt or water bottle, they did vintage knit hats.  I have been looking forward to this silly hat, and planning my winter attire around it, so far this winter.  So I was quite excited.  Also, a few friends were running this time too, along with 5,000 other runners.  This was considered a ‘fun run’ where everyone dresses silly and there’s blow up figures everywhere. It was a much different atmosphere than my first 5K. 

Here were my goals for this 5K:

1. Run the whole thing and finish faster than last time.

2.  Have fun running with friends and my husband

3.  Kick my husband’s butt.

To be clear, I did not specifically train for this 5K either.  I have not upped my running outside of the gym.  My classes at the gym have become a little more cardio focused which has upped my endurance.  However, I’m still not running on my own.  My husband didn’t train……….at all and probably hasn’t run more than a mile since high school.  We do hike and he’s fairly active but I thought he would struggle for sure.

Mile 1:  Again, Mile 1 is always the easiest for me.  My body felt great that day and I wasn’t nervous at all about keeping up with everyone.  There were so many people that I knew no one was sizing me up.  Also, we were encouraged not take it too seriously since it was a fun run. I set my own timer as this race did not track the runners.  At 13 minutes I finally checked the time because we hadn’t seen a mile marker yet.  I was thinking, we HAVE to be done with the first mile.  The first mile was all within the stadium, so it was hard to me to track the distance.

Mile 2: (I’m guessing…..) Mile 2 is always hard for me.  It’s just longer than I usually run and my body starts to get mad.  I had a stomach cramp from (again…..guessing)  2.2 – 3.0 miles.  I told Dan, who was still running strong too, that I might have to stop soon.  Of course he didn’t care and was only keeping up with me at that point.  So three or four different times I almost stopped.  But I knew as soon as I walked, I would have wished that I didn’t.  The track got so thin sometimes I was even just running in place so that I didn’t walk.  I got through the cramp and then felt fine but psychologically it was really difficult to keep going when you’re body is pretending it can’t. Still no mile markers.

Mile 3: The end is always pretty easy.  By now you’re running on a high and know you are almost done.  Also, if you’ve gone this far you can just keep going right? My body tends to go in machine mode and just run.  I find myself wanting to sprint just to have the race over with!  I had checked the time in the last stretch and knew I had about 5 minutes to get across the finish line to finish faster than my last race.  At this point Dan had walked a few times but always caught back up with me.  He was starting to have weird pains so I ran ahead to keep my time.

Last 5K Time: 36:22.  Ugly Sweater Run: 32:54

Three and a half minutes faster!  I knew I would finish under my last time but I didn’t expect that it would be that fast!  I was also the first finisher in my group.

Two years ago I would have laughed at the thought of running a 5K with my husband.  Even a year ago, when my friend Nikki started the Zombie 5K ap, I was still saying “I’ll never be able to run a 5K.”  Well on Saturday we ran one together, and I beat her!  (Granted she was sick…….but still! Love you girl!)

I feel like I’m wrapping around to something I continue to repeat over and over on this site: The time will pass anyway!  Two years, one year, 6 months ago I didn’t think I could ever run an entire 5K without stopping but I did.  The time that you spend overweight, unhappy, out of shape will continue to pass whether or not you do something about it.  OR you can take your own life and health into control and GET. IT. DONE.

 

PS.  I’ve been wearing the hat ever since!