This past summer I decided to make some specific fitness goals which involved shedding the last of my pregnancy weight (which never actually happened- those last 10 pounds are a bugger!) and running more (which did!). Enter signing up to run my first ever 5k.
As a side note: I ran track in back in high school, but being a sprinter I rarely ran anything further than a mile unless forced (which only happened a couple of times a season), and even that was over 8 years ago, with only tiny spurts of running between pregnancies since then. I was both nervous and excited to consistently train for and eventually run a THREE MILE race. Three miles. Straight. LIKE, AT THE SAME TIME. A feat which I had never even once accomplished in my entire life!
I picked a color run (The Color Me Rad version) a few months away, so I had plenty of time to build up my currently non-existent endurance (seriously, I felt like I was going to die after running a lap!), and thought that the race itself (which involved color bombing stations throughout the course) would provide a fun distraction from all the running stuff I was going to be doing.
For three straight miles.
This was going to be a big deal for me.
A standard week in the life of my pre-race conditioning usually consisted of a minimum of three days of running a week- a minimum of a timed mile or two around the track or a minimum of a 30 minute run through neighborhoods- and one more day where I mixed things up with either a hike, workout DVD or something else. I never actually ran the entire three mile distance in all of my conditioning, but I guess I was counting on the adrenaline and atmosphere of the event to carry me through that last mile when it came to the day of. My plan almost worked.
A standard week in the life of my pre-race conditioning usually consisted of a minimum of three days of running a week- a minimum of a timed mile or two around the track or a minimum of a 30 minute run through neighborhoods- and one more day where I mixed things up with either a hike, workout DVD or something else. I never actually ran the entire three mile distance in all of my conditioning, but I guess I was counting on the adrenaline and atmosphere of the event to carry me through that last mile when it came to the day of. My plan almost worked.
The entire week before the race, the weather had been super cold and rainy, so I was worried that I would end up a shivering, wet mess through out my race. But alas, the morning of my race came, and it was a sunny, though ridiculously chilly, morning. I was so grateful!
I felt like an official 5k-er once I had my bib in place
Kyle and I decided that we wanted to make the day of my 5k a family event. It was a big goal that I had made, and something that I had worked so hard for, and definitely something we wanted to celebrate as a family. Health and fitness is something that is very important to Kyle and I, and we hope to be able to set good examples to our children of the importance of staying active, working towards and achieving goals and having fun doing it- plus, Mommy wanted cheerleaders!- so we definitely wanted everyone to be a part of it.
Unfortunately for poor Waits, the chilly weather, ridiculously loud speaker system blasting music, an insanely loud emcee screaming into the microphone, and a missed nap on top of mommy not being able to hold him was a little too much. He was not a happy camper. We tried helping him to fall asleep in the stroller:
While it did help him stop crying temporarily, it didn't last very long. We ended up putting him in his carseat carrier for a nap and locking him in the car (it was a cold morning and the windows were cracked), which was parked right next to the start/finish line. Hey, it worked great, and everyone was happy!
One last picture before the race starts:
Or not. This is what you get when Kyle thinks my picture poses are too boring, and insists I do something "interesting", or that I "act excited":
Heading to the start line:
The crowd at the start line:
Okay, so this was something that after the race, I decided I really didn't love about the particular structure of the Color Me Rad race: When I originally registered, I had to sign up for a waive for the start of the race. There were 3 scheduled waives, all starting in 5-minute increments (to help with crowd control). Come to find out, regardless of what waive you signed up for, and how urgently they expressed that you needed to be at the start-line at the time of your scheduled waive or you can't run it didn't matter when you actually started. The whole crowd just pushed up against the start line, they blew a gun and a big group of runners took off. Five minutes later, they blew another gun, etc. It wasn't nearly as official as they had made it out to be, and that, along with several other rather unprofessional event details, left me feeling underwhelmed and disappointed with the overall race atmosphere (especially for my first race!).
I did't get to start running until the third waive. So after a 10 minute wait, it was finally my turn.
Ready. Set. Go!
Crossing the finish line:
Being greeted by my support crew:
The finish line was the final "color station" (where volunteers are posted throughout the race, and throw colored cornstarch at you as you run past), and if you can't tell, it was the green station. My welcoming party was coated head-to-toe in green powder by the time I arrived:
I hope I don't come off as too much of a Negative Nancy in this post, because I really enjoyed being able to participate in this event, but another thing I didn't love about this particular race (this was a serious bummer, actually) was that they provided no tracking devices for your time. Which I didn't even think about until after I crossed the finish line. How long did it take me to run my first ever 5k?? I have absolutely no idea! Kyle had sort of kept track of the time on our phone, but he had lost me in the start-line crowd and had no idea at which time I actually started, and I even tried adding up the time of the songs I listened to on my ipod while I was running, but couldn't remember exactly which ones I had skipped, and some I had skipped halfway through. It was a mess trying to figure out my time. The best I could possibly figure, I either ran it in 35 or 45 minutes. Pretty big gap, I know. But either way I am happy with my performance. My intention was never to run this 5k competitively, just to finish it!
Kyle and the girls gave me flowers!
I was so happy. 1) that it was over, 2) That I had actually accomplished something that I thought was awesome, and 3) That my sweet family was so supportive and got to be there to celebrate with me.
I only walked twice during the entire race (though my goal was to not walk at all. Oh well.): First, during a huge hill at the beginning. I decided not to kill myself trying to run up the whole thing, and end up struggling later on to just keep running. And again, right before the finish line, for a timed minute, and only because I had absolutely NO IDEA how close I was (it wasn't in sight), and had I known just how close the finish line was (I mean, seriously, I was probably within 800 yards!), I definitely would have pushed through. Despite not accomplishing my goal to not walk, I am still very proud of myself and what I did accomplish.
This experience helped me realize how much I love running. Maybe I don't always actually love the whole running part, but I do love the lifestyle of dedication, self-discipline, overall fitness and the excitement of achieving goals. There will absolutely be more of these in my future!
Though maybe not another Color Me Rad race. I do not love those. ;)
