Atlanta women’s 5k

So, while I was "away" I accomplished a pretty big goal in my book. I successfully participated in a 5k. Now, a 5k may not seem like a big deal to you (a measly 3.12 miles), but for me it was huge. My bestie L and I talked about needing the right kind of motivation to get ourselves moving (me, more than her, she's been kickin' it for a couple of years now) at the beginning of the year and we came up the grand plan of doing a 5k. All it took was an internet search and we found the Atlanta Women's 5K. We both procrastinated on signing up, but eventually bit the bullet and started "training". At first, I was determined to run part of it, then when we started training I took a good hard look at my fitness level and tried to be completely honest about my abilities, and decided to walk it. And maybe throw a little wog (walk + jog) in for fun.

Training was derailed by the chaotic events of the past two months, so I really wasn't ready. I wanted so badly to just not show up and probably had a valid reason not to (no training time, the 5k ended being on moving day), but I stuck with it. Our friend Carol joined us as well.

First of all, if you are doing one of these walking/running things….they like to start early. Really early. Like, it's still dark, early. Secondly, when you're running in March, it's still really cold when it's dark. So, note to self, wear more layers next time.

There were a lot of people, the majority of whom seemed to be pretty fit and dressed in their super-duper running gear. I have to say I felt very conspicuous. Obviously not fit, no expensive running shoes and certainly no form-fitting lycra, spandex, short-shorts or tank tops (tanks tops and short-shorts!!! It was like 40 degrees and wiiinndy!) I had a moment of panic and seriously wanted to just go home. And then, the sun started to rise, and everyone began gathering at the start line. There was this excitement in the air and adrenaline started pumping. Just knowing that you were all there for one reason made the anticipation huge. That part was fun! I didn't hear the announcement of the start, but suddenly there was this huge press and for just a second all you could hear was shoes hitting the pavement. Pretty amazing.  You can’t tell it very well on this photo, but at one point we could see everyone ahead of us….

Lisa and Carol were both awesome. I don't know about Carol, but I know Lisa could definitely have finished much faster, but she stayed behind and was amazingly supportive and entertaining. And….we finished! And, even better, we weren't last! I won't pretend I didn't count up how many people were slower than we were. I needed to know. We beat 41 other participants and my official time was 57 minutes, 51 seconds. So, about 18 minutes a mile. There were tons of people who finished ahead of us, and in fact, the winner ran in something like 17 minutes, so she finished before we even hit the 1 mile marker.

But - I'm super proud of us. And we're planning on doing this exact same 5k next year. And I fully intend in improving my time. I hesitate to even post this on the blog, but I've signed up for the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. It's a *gulp* 10k (6.2 miles). I took a little training break during the move, but started up again last week. I've got to amp it up if I'm going to do this….wish me luck!