Crossing it off the list

I recommend setting goals for yourself and working hard to achieve them. It's so incredibly satisfying to cross something hard off your goal list. I also recommend that a lot of the hard work comes BEFORE the finish line. Do what I say, not what I do.

I ran a 5k yesterday! My very first! I hadn't been training in a month! It was really, really hard! When I first started running a few years ago, I could only run/walk/run/walk. Then I got up to running a mile without stopping, then two. At the beginning of the year I was running twice a week, and I got up to 3.25 miles pretty easily -- slowly, very slowly, but manageable. So when I signed up for the 5k at the end of March, I felt pretty confident.

Then I started focusing my goal on my Zumba teaching license (post needed!) and slacked on the running. I figured it would be fine because all the endurance was still there; I was doing 20-25 hours of Zumba a month in April and May, and the training class was 8 hours long. So I thought I'd be all right.

This is my "Oh God, am I really about to run a 5k?" face.

I ran the Meet Me Downtown 5k, which was....downtown. On June 1. In Tucson. Which is in the DESERT. Lucky for us, yesterday was the first day we hit over 100 degrees in 2013! It was so hot ;_;

When we first started out, all I could think was "Oh wow, I'm really doing this!" It was tough to find my own pace in the sea of faster, better runners, and my muscles protested loudly for the first half mile. One of the lovely things about this race was the good residents of downtown Tucson. They sat on their porches and on the sidewalks and cheered us on, and they sprayed us with their garden hoses. That was the best. I definitely picked up the pace after a good drenching.

I ran the entire 5k. I was determined not to slow to a walk, because then it wouldn't count as running a 5k and I'd have to do the whole damn thing over again. So I ran it. Very slowly. There might have been people walking faster than me. BUT I RAN IT.

After: Fat, sassy, 'n sore.

It was a great feeling running to the finish line. I pushed every last bit of energy I had into that last sprint and finished 3.1 miles in 49:10. Which is pretty average pace for me...no records, but no major slow downs from my norm either.

After the race there was free vitamin water, bananas (I took 3), some amazing trail mix, and turkey hot dogs. And apparently beer, too, but we didn't get any. There was a band playing and local food trucks, but mostly we all just wanted to get home.

It's done! 5k! Crossed off the list! Never have to do it again!

Oh, what, there's a Turkey 5k Run in November? Well, we'll see....