Iron Girl 5K: Recap

So...I ran a 5K. I did it. I was slow but I never stopped running. That is BEYOND amazing to me. What a great weekend!

On Saturday my dad came into town and we ran around most of the day since I was nervous and didn't want to sit still. When it came time to sleep, I kind of had a mini breakdown. All of the emotions from months of good and bad training days hit me at once and I was just overwhelmed. I couldn't believe I was going to do this. This mythical 5K that was a far off dream during Christmas was now becoming a reality. THE FEELS! 

Accurate.

After a night of very little sleep, I woke up at 5 am ate some rice krispies and suited up. We had fancy time chips that we were fiddling with the best way to put on our sneakers. Weird things but I never even knew it was there until they harvested it from our shoes at the end. Seriously, people were at the finish line with scissors in their hands watching feet and then would stop you to harvest the chip.

o0o0o fancy

It was a tiny bit chilly but the sun was rising as we were stretching and getting ready. The half marathon started first so we cheered them on and then had 20 minutes to jog around a bit and get ready. I was nervous but the whole thing felt surreal. At one point I looked down and was confused why I had a tag on my shirt. I'm not a runner. I'm a fat girl. I walk. I don't run. Yet the tag stayed and I continued to be in a drowsy haze.

Random runners in the parking lot/holding tank

The reality hit me hard when we were all packed in at the starting line. I stayed near the back since I knew better to get in the way of the "real" runners. They were crazy fast. Five minute mile fast. Dang. The countdown happened and we were off. 

It was light jogging on the flat and then up a hill out of the parking lot and onto the main street. The course was gentle rolling hills. There would be a flat area, a nice incline, a flat, a nice incline and repeat a few times. At one point I asked my dad if we hit a mile yet and he said we were right by the half way/turn around point. Sure enough a few minutes later we grabbed some water, tossed it back and set off down hill. Oh how wondrous the downhill part felt after, more or less, an uphill climb. There were some light hills again but it was nice and we really picked up the pace from mile 2 to the end. People were walking a lot and we kept passing loads of them, making me feel great that I was able to keep going. Around mile 3 I told my dad I was getting a beer at lunch and I didn't care. I earned it. He just chuckled. 

I remember seeing the end point of the race. My lungs were starting to burn since I was pushing it. I saw the other runners ahead of us turning to the right and I knew we were steps from the finish! I continued to bugger on and was soon greeting by the flags and fancy finish line colors. They announced my name as I finished and all I kept telling myself was "get to the blue mats, get to the blue mats, get to the blue mats." I touched down on those lovely blue mats and started to walk. My head felt like it was floating and I assumed it was from minor oxygen deprivation there at the end. 

I'm in the black going under the arch.
My dad hung back so I could have my time alone with the blue mats, haha.
I have never been so happy to see blue mats in my life.

The official race clock was set for the half marathon finishers so I had no clue what time I came in at until I got home and looked at the results. I was just happy to have finished. I got my fancy "finisher" medal, some water and got my shoe tag harvested and then grabbed some free food. An unripe banana never tasted so good. When we got back to the car I had a rice krispie treat I promised myself if I didn't walk during the race. Such sweet, sugary success!

At home I looked up my final time and was pleasantly surprised to have finished in 41 minutes and 36 seconds. My goal was to do it in 45 minutes and I smashed that. My next goal will be to do 5K under 40 minutes. In my head I keep beating myself up. "I should have trained harder...I should have run faster..." At 182 pounds I did a very respectable time. The more weight that comes off my body the more minutes will come off my 5K time. I started this on December 29th wheezing and hacking after running 1 minute. I ran 41 minutes today without stopping. Now that is progress. I'm happier that I can run the distance rather than speed. Speed will come. It will take time but speed will come.

My fancy medal.

Now to wait for Game of Thrones!!

Mileage: 3.1
Average Pace per Mile: 13:26 (thank you run keeper! I did the math wrong and thought I did around 13:59...yay for an extra few second off!)