So I started training this summer for a 5k, I have never liked to run and really wanted to try this. I found a program called couch-2-5k and checked it out. I really like the idea of training in intervals, running and walking and gradually working your way up to running a long period of time, or a 5k distance. It was a 9 week program, not too long, but long enough to get used to running. The first time that I was able to do the first long run, 20 minutes, without any walking, I cried. Never in my life have I been able to run that long, much less I kinda liked it.
So without much ado, I signed up for my first 5k, it was the moon walk/run here in town. The night of the race I showed up with my sister, who was going to walk it while I ran it and my kids, husband and mom there all for support. The excitement in the air was great! I was nervous but excited at the same time. The race went well, except I got a side stitch the first mile and had to breathe through it. I walked only twice and ran the rest! I came in with a time of 39:31, my goal was to finish under 40 minutes and run as much as I could. Well I came in under my time, I was so excited! Unfortunately after the race I kinda fell off the running wagon.
That was until my friend Pauline got me out speed walking and interval running again. She really wanted to do a 5k and asked me to train with her. This got us walking differnet distances everyday, some were 2.25 miles in 30 minutes other days it was 4 miles in 60 minutes and so forth. It was a really fun experience to train with someone this time. We decided to sign up for the Save-A-Sister 5k in St. George. The morning of the race it was raining all the way to St. George and we were hoping that it would stop so we wouldn't have to run in the rain, thankfully it quite when we got there. It was a really fun race, lots of people running in support of breast cancer awareness. Again the excitement I felt in the air was great at getting me going. We ran and walked it (although when I say walk, it really means a speed walk). The route was kinda hilly, we didn't train with any hills, but just walked up them and ran down them. I finished with a time of 37:38, a whopping 2 minutes faster than my first one. I couldn't be happier with that! I ran a 12 minutes mile, came in 98th in the women's 5k out of 194 and took 21st out of 39 in my age division.
It has been really fun training and I kinda like running, so I am going to keep plugging away with it and hopefully next year run a few more 5k's, maybe even a 10k!!
