I did it!  I finally did it! I ran in a 5K on Saturday, June 8th. It was the first one ever, in my entire life. When I say “ran”, I actually mean ran and walked, alternating. I could not run the entire way. I couldn’t even run the first mile the entire way, But alternating walking and running, I was able to do the 5K.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and the 5K started at 8:00 a.m. so it was still cool out, although once I started to run, I quickly heated up. I just knew that I wanted to do a 5K, and so I found a way to get the first one under my belt. What helped was that when I signed up, the website said “walkers are welcome.”   And I knew this was the 5K for me.

I haven’t really had time to train or anything. I think I was actually in better shape in the fall, when I had worked up to running for probably close to a mile without stopping to walk. But then the weather got cold, and stayed cold until pretty much recently. I went out only on the weekends to run/walk for maybe 4 times this Spring. That was the extent of my training this year.

Since they have clocks at each mile, I learned that I do about a 12-minute mile. Not the best time ever, but, it’s somewhere to start!  I ran the 5K in 38 minutes. I honestly believed that I would be the last person to finish. I was really surprised when I realized there were still some people behind me.

I had imagined everyone passing me up, and so I kept looking far ahead to make sure I knew where to turn, etc because I was afraid I’d lose my way when everyone passed me. Luckily, that didn’t happen and I noticed other people alternate running and walking as well.

There was one girl that I pretty much kept pace with. She’d usually be a little ahead of me, either walking or running, then I’d pass her and I’d be a little bit ahead of her, and then she’d pass me again, etc. Towards the end I lost track of her, but I think we pretty much kept up the same pace through the race.

Then I happened upon a mother and daughter who were running together. The daughter was about 10 and she was crying, I think she wanted to stop and rest but the mom told her to keep running. They ran like that for a while, with the poor girl sobbing and the mother calmly saying, you have to keep running. Finally, they took a break and walked for a while. I really identified with the daughter, because I felt like I wouldn’t be able to keep going either!

Other times I felt tougher, if not stronger. I gave myself a pep talk. Ok, so I can’t run this whole way, but I definitely know I can walk what I can’t run. So I definitely have enough stamina to finish. I will get there (the finish line) it’s only a matter of how quickly or slowly.

About 2 blocks away from the finish line, someone had put speakers in front of their house playing the theme song from Chariots of Fire. I felt so triumphant running past their house! But the biggest triumph was when I crossed the finish line.

And so now I have a 5K under my belt. I have that one piece of confidence that I didn’t have before. This will help when doing the next one. Hopefully I will get more training in (now that the weather is nice), and when I do the next 5K, I’ll know for sure that hey, I’ve done this before, I know what it took and I can do it again. And there will be all the fun of trying to improve my time, etc. And I can have conversations with runners now. My time? Oh yes, I have a time now!  I do a 12-minute mile. It may not be impressive, but now at least I have one.