Hooked on 5Ks

If you asked me a year ago if I'd consider myself a runner, I'd probably ask if you were joking. I'm short, I'm slow, I'm heavy, I'm lazy, I'm blah blah blah excuses.

But right around last summer, I decide, why the heck not? Why can't I be a runner? It's a great workout, I can do it any time I want without any real equipment, and at the time I was going to the gym in my office building twice a week. So... I gave Couch 2 5K a whirl and managed to get myself up to running a mile by the end of July. And then I started Turbo Fire and Chalean Extreme in the August/Sept timeframe and running got put on the back burner.

But when I joined my gym in December with access to a treadmill, I started it up again. And those few months of increasing my fitness at home really helped! I finally realized that being 5'2.5", running slowly is a good thing to start off with. 4.5 or 4.7 on the treadmill was a comfy speed and I could run longer than I had before. I finally worked my way up to running an entire 5K distance on the treadmill, and I had done it outside too, right around the 40 minute timeframe to complete it.

And then I decided (well, Sarah aka supersarah14 on here) suggested running a 5K together! And behold, my first 5K race was scheduled. That was May 1st. I finished in 39:33 and I ran the entire thing. I was sold on 5Ks, they were fun and exhilerating and really got me excited. I booked more. My second race went INSANELY well for the conditions: humid, drizzling, hilly, started with a stomach ache... but then I went into "race mode" and I finished in 36:25.... 3 minutes faster than the last one??? OK, I could get used to this...

And then came yesterday. I ended up staying out til midnight at my boyfriend's, only got 5 hours of sleep, and I hadn't really worked out much the week before (but I had been running quite a bit in the previous 2 weeks). So I wasn't sure how it would go... but I felt OK right before the race start. After the first mile, I was think this isn't so bad. Pretty flat, not humid or too hot, and I finished the first mile around 10:45, a new record! I started to run out of steam a bit towards the end so I took a few short walking breaks. And then the final sprint... and my time...

35:26!!!!!  

28/50 Sara Traynor, 25, Reston 35:26 11:26 

(The 28/50 is my age group, I was 433/649 overall) 

New PR by a minute! And at that point, i was pretty much completely hooked on 5Ks. I went on my phone to start looking for another race, but they don't have many of them around here in the summer it looks like. But there is one in Reston (my town) 2 weekends from now on Father's Day that I think I might do. My boyfriend is out of town anyway. And then, who knows. I'm planning to keep building strength, keep running at the gym a few times a week, and hopefully keep improving my time. It's amazing how much less painful they are getting with each one I do. But I'm still taking a rest day today to recover. I want a mani/pedi and a trip to Target :)