First Step to the Tri--my first 5K

So, I ran my first race last week--the Turkey Trot 5K. I was actually feeling quite confident about it because I had run 3.5 miles earlier that week without much incident. I'm actually finding that the first mile is hard for me, but then, as long as I don't get bored, the rest comes pretty easily.

Kyle did this with me and that made it six times more fun (Much more than twice as much fun, not as much as 10x).

We went to go pick up our friends at 7am (as I have access to the parking garage across from my work, right by the race start). At the start, people were dressed up with Turkey hats, Xmas gear, etc. I had a Santa hat (which was terribly impractical--I stuffed it in my waist band within the first quarter mile). There were about 5,000 people. Kyle wanted to start right when the race began--I wanted to wait to let the crowd thin out a little. It was hard to let him go--I wanted to see him succeed. And there was that feeling that if I let him go into that crowd, I may never see him again!

I started three minutes in. Got a pace faster than what I normally run and realized that I was winded by the end of the street already. So I slowed to my normal pace and went from there.

It was a beautiful run. Gorgeous cool day, cute houses along the way, really nice people out watching everyone and waving. I hit the one mile marker and it felt like 2 miles already, but I was enjoying it. And then, before you knew it, I hit the 2 mile marker. Where'd that go?

The amazing feat of the race was "de-layering." I know understand why runners layer their clothes. But I, the newbie that I am, put a holiday turtle neck UNDER my race shirt. And, of course, when my body started to warm-up, I was stuck. So, I took my arms out from both the shirts, put them back in the top t-shirt and pulled out the turtle neck and tied it around my waist. ALL WITHOUT EVER STOPPING RUNNING.

At the finish line, this all felt very anti-climactic. People were cheering the whole length of the street, but my time was very slow. There were speed walkers who were passing me. But then I realized it. I ran a race. I ran the whole thing. I never stopped. A few months ago I couldn't run a mile. I sped up a little bit the last bit and a woman running next to me started congratulating me. Then I felt good.

Kyle finished about five minutes before me. He ran really hard the first mile, stopping once. But then he was burnt out and stopped like 10 times during the second mile. He was waiting for me at Panera, quite pleased with what he had accomplished that morning.

As for me, I finished. I've already forgotten my time (isn't that pitiful? Aren't I supposed to be a runner and obsessed about my time?), but I think it was around 45 minutes. I was running 14-15 minute miles. That's barely jogging. I need to speed that up. But I ran. A race. A whole race.

That's step one...4 months to go to the triathlon.