First 5K

Okay...First race report ever. First off, I did it and beat my goal by almost 4 minutes! I was so excited to be there, even tho I couldn't sleep well last night, mainly because I couldn't find a pair of shorts that fit. But, sometime around 3 a.m. my drawer coughed up a pair that wouldn't fall down, and wasn't too small. Anywayssss....Sarah picked me up on time, we drank a smoothie on the way, and both felt pretty similar....this was about having fun and doing the best we could. Never mind that this was the World Championship for the Xterra Off Road 21 K. We had our race to run.

We saw the Real Racers off, then the 10K'ers. Next was our turn. Everything started out great – I was right in the middle of the pack, running along. Right around the first bend appeared a killer hill...I didn't know

at the time that it went up for about the first mile, but I did know that I couldn't run up it. What I also didn't know was that I could walk up it at a fairly good pace without stopping, even when taking pictures. So, at the first aid station (1.7 mile), I was way behind the pack, but had quite a few people behind me. That was quite a relief. After that it was a piece of cake. I watched myself on the extreme downhills and over the cattle gates,but ran quite a bit, even passing a bunch of people. At times I actually felt like I was getting in the groove of running.

In the midst of it all, I took pics of the mountains and various movie settings. And, in the end, I came in 4th in my age division. My friend came in 2nd. And I wasn't even close to last over all. Yay! Now I'm thinking of doing a mini tri. Talked to an 80 year old who had good information about them. Why not?

What Was I Thinking???

Four days until my first 5K...and I am scared. I don't think I'm ready. I'm sure I'm not ready to run the whole way. I'm pretty sure I can finish, I just don't want to be last. I was supposed to do a 28 minute run this weekend, but I didn't. I did, however go for a walk and two bike rides – one was for 3 ½ hours. Yay, flat Arizona topography!!!

So, yesterday after strengthtraining class I tried to do the 28 minutes on the tread. No good. I only made it 12 minutes before I had to slow it down. I tried to keep the pace up as high as I could, alternating fast walking and running/jogging, and eventually finished two miles in just under 30 minutes. SLOOOOOWWW. So, I guess I'm going to shoot for a time of under 50 minutes. And that might be pushing it. I'm trying to keep that ugly voice out of my head, so it doesn't keep telling me I'm going to make a fool of myself out there. Right, every time it tells me that I tell myself it's a good thing that I'm even attempting it, given the shape I was in six months ago. Still, I hate to embarrass myself.

Okay, enough of that kind of thinking. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to have fun doing it. Period. Here's the good news. I lost another pound this week. Even with turkey sandwiches and maybe the best lemon meringue pie I've ever had. What I've come to know is that, for me, the key to losing weight and feeling good is Keep it Moving. Speaking of which (sorry cold winter mainland people), I'm going to head to the beach for an hour of bodyboarding before work.