My (un)intentional 5k Race
Who signs up for a 5k the day before the race? This woman.
Although I’ve done a 5k before (well two to be exact), I haven’t done a 5k since July last year and I certainly haven’t been training for one — unless we count running 1/8 mile intervals at the gym as training for a 3.1 mile race….
Yeah I figured as much.
Well Friday afternoon I was heading to the cafe to pick up a salad for a late lunch when I noticed a table of young ladies with neon pink fliers everywhere. I’m usually see student groups renting tables in this area, but the pink fliers said “charity 5k” and the table staffers were calling me over to sign up.
Great. This was NOT a part of my plan, and at this point, my stomach was letting me know. I walked by the table the first time, but I had to go back through the area to get back to my office…
All I can say is they had a really good pitch and lots of enthusiasm. My thoughts while registering:
I mean it’s a “fun” run for charity, right? Those children at Mott Children’s hospital need my $10, and they were going to get it! Besides there’s a free t-shirt and snacks at the end of the race? I need a free t-shirt! And snacks are cool!
I was on cloud nine until I realized on the drive home what I’d done.
Am I crazy??? I haven’t been to the gym since Monday and that was just for Zumba. That s NOT the same as running. My husband, Nick agreed. As I told him I’d signed up for a 5k happening the next day, his eyes got wide and he started laughing. That was all I needed to see to seal the deal on my insanity.
We went out to Meijer yesterday night to get a fanny pack to hold my energy jellie beans, phone, keys, and towel. I even got a new water bottle (seriously, this is my sixth one. All the rest have shattered or been stolen in the last 8 months…I have SUCH good luck with Nalgene bottles lol). After getting out my UnderArmour cold gear and packing my bag, I was ready. Well sort of. Since the last time I went to the gym to run I had horrible shin splits, I was just hoping and praying my lack of practice wouldn’t come back to bite me in the boot.
Race Day
This morning, my alarm went off and I immediately thought:
Well I paid already — won’t the donation be enough? Why do I have to go run, too? It’s not ike the patients at Mott will be out there watching. Oh yeah, I do need to be there to get my free t-shirt. Ehhhh…I GUESS I’ll get up.
I got to the start line and not only was I the only fat-looking person out there, I also looked a lot older than the 18-year old college students stretching and running around with groups of friends to warm up. Did I mention it was 30° Fahrenheit? I only wore a thin windbreaker over my running gear, so as I pulled my sleeves down to cover my cold hands, I just knew I was screwed. I walked to the very back of the group slowly lining up just because I knew I would finish last and didn’t want to get caught up in the swarm of faster runners.
Just as the race was about to begin, I met a group of women who looked a little older than me. I soon found out it was their first time trying a 5k, so I would be in good company in last place. Yay! I wasn’t going to be alone after all. When the race started, though, I decided to jog with the group ahead of me. I was keeping up and passing people — woot! As the first hill came up, I started briskly walking since most of the field was walking this hill, too. Things went on like this (running, then walking hills, then running again) until the halfway point of the race.
By this point, I noticed that my left leg had a strong sharp pain going up my shin.
Crap! Shin split again? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ll keep a light jog and see how that goes.
So that nice little warning from my body telling me my leg was tired got worse…a lot worse. I slowed to a walk and it was screaming at me by the 2 mile marker. All those people I’d passed earlier were now passing me. And they were walking. I felt horrible. I started questioning myself, wondering if I were truly a runner if I could get taken out so quickly by a shin split. The bad thing was that stopping several times to stretch my leg and foot didn’t work at all. I was going to have to finish the race with a slow walk. Ugh. Not gonna lie — that Michigan bus was looking rather nice and there were so many bus stops around. It would’ve been so nice to sit on the warm bus instead of slowly walking off a painful shin split in the freezing cold for the last half of the race.
Just when I started seeing the group of first time 5k walkers behind me (about .6 miles to the end), something miraculous happened: the awful, horrible, no good, very bad shin split disappeared. I was shocked, but I wasn’t going to question it or waste the opportunity. I started running and didn’t stop. Even when my mind kept thinking about the possibility of getting another shin split or running out of breath, I fought back by telling myself it’s not happening right now so I’m going to keep going. I was so close to the finish I could taste it, and I wanted to run through the finish.
I saw the finish line area and stopped for a moment to catch my breath. This was it. I started jogging and as the student volunteers cheered me on, I ran through the finish line and simultaneously broke down the mental wall in my head that told me I couldn’t do this. As I walked to the snack table, I realized that not only did I mentally feel good — my body felt great! I was breathing at a normal pace, felt somewhat warm, and in general, I wanted to keep running. WHAT???? This is NOT how I felt at my last two 5k races (the first one I wanted to fall across the finish line and the second one I wanted death before running again). I got my 5k shirt and relished the fact that I not only finished, but I wasn’t in last place at all!
My finishing time was 45:37 — 2 minutes faster than my fastest time despite having such a slow go for most of the race. I may not be the fastest, strongest, or most fit, but I did it. I had become a runner.
