My First 5K

It's official. I ran my first 5K, and I can hardly believe it! :) I've never been a runner. I've always hated the idea of running. But something crazy clicked in my head about 2.5 months ago after hearing some of my neighbors talk about getting into running and reading an article in one of my magazines talking about fitness buddies. So I told B I would do the Couch to 5K training program with him if we was interested. I bought the app for my phone and within a day or two we were pounding the pavement!

It didn't take me long to realize that I needed some proper workout clothes, and that we would benefit from a double jogging stroller for the boys. I dropped some cash at Kohl's, and B scoured Craigslist where he found a decent deal for a stroller. Our general run schedule was Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday mornings. We lucked out with a beautiful fall which enabled us to run outside up until the end of October. Then it finally got cold enough in the mornings where we felt it was better for us (and the boys) to utilize the local gym.

A family friend of B's clued us in to the Hot Chocolate 5K/15K that was happening in Chicago on Nov 5. My sister, Cathy, ran that last year, and I remembered her telling me about the gobs and gobs of chocolate they got! When I checked the date against our 9 week training schedule, I found that the timing could not have been better!! The date of the race landed right at the end of our final training week! Talk about serendipity! So we signed up that very night and now had a serious goal to keep us honest. :)

I had a lot of ups and downs throughout the training process; especially in the first few weeks. The program helps you gradually build up to running for a full 30 min by breaking your workout into walk/run increments. The running portions steadily lengthen as the walking portions shrink. I really struggled with the running part in the beginning. I was OK running for 60-90 seconds, but for some reason, the 3-5 min runs were so difficult! I was seriously worried about the upcoming weeks and the longer runs. But then I started using music to help me on the runs, and that made ALL the difference for me. Suddenly I had something different to focus on and a beat to help me with pace. Once I made music a regular part of the routine, it became much more bearable.

The day I ran for 20 min straight (week 5, day 3) was a HUGE milestone for me. I never thought I'd be able to do that. A lot of people say that running is a mental thing. If you can get past the mental stumbling blocks, it's amazing what you can really do. Getting to 25, then 28, and finally 30 min weren't nearly as hard as those first few weeks. Don't get me wrong, I often hit points throughout my run where all I want to do is walk or quit, but I find ways to push through those moments and muster up new strength to continue on.

The nine weeks pretty much flew by, and before I knew it, it was race weekend. Caiden and I took the train down into Chicago (his first proper train ride!) to pick up our race packets at the expo, and I decided that since this was my first ever 5K, I'd treat myself to a shirt and mug to commemorate the occasion. :) We went to bed early-ish that night, and 5:30am rolled around pretty darn quickly. Cathy was super awesome and showed up at 6am (on a Saturday, mind you, again - SUPER awesome) to take care of the boys for us so that we didn't have to wake them up and take them downtown in the cold with us.

We got on the road a little later than planned, but still made it downtown in pretty good time. We were stymied by some traffic and construction, but finally found our way to the parking garage and coughed up the $25 for the convenience of close parking. Lucky for us, the start was delayed by 15 min due to a semi-truck getting stuck thus causing a race route modification. We huffed it over to gear check, stripped down some layers, ditched our bags, and finally into our corral. On our way, I got a text message from my sister Karla who was also super awesome to get up ridiculously early on a Saturday morning to come down and cheer us on! That really made my day to have someone we knew down there to cheer for us!!! :D We found her on our way to the start line where she high-fived us and snapped our picture. :)

Moments later, we crossed the start line and started our run!!! Now, up to this point, I had never actually run the full 5K. I didn't realize this until the final week running on a treadmill. I wasn't entirely sure I could run the whole distance, but I really wanted to try, so that was my goal and what I kept using to motivate myself to stay strong! It was neat running with such a HUGE group and listening to all the chatter going on around me. I also could feel the excitement of everyone which was a neat experience and also good for motivation. :) The course was pretty neat. We started in Grant Park on Columbus and Monroe and ran through downtown. We turned onto Randolph and ran thru the theatre district. We passed the block where my old office was, then turned to continued down Franklin. We took Franklin down past the Sears (Willis, bah, whatever) Tower and turned again down Van Buren. That lead us to Michigan and then to Roosevelt and finally back to Colombus to the finish line.

At the midway point I grabbed a Gatorade from the volunteers, and felt cool and all runner-like as I crushed the cup and tossed it on the pavement when I was done. :P By the time we got close to mile 3, I was starting to get tired and decided it was time to bring on the tunes. That helped to distract me and keep me going. We also spotted some people with signs cheering us ALL on towards the end. They had signs that said things like "Keep running, total stranger, you can do it!" and "You inspire me" and the like. It was both funny and motivating. Then we had an evil hill to conquer, and BOY did that ever test my mettle! I survived that, and when we rounded the bend, the finish line was in sight, and I was still running!!! At that point, I knew I could make it to the end without stopping! I had yet another serendipitous moment where the one song I needed to keep me going kicked in and carried me to the finish line and ended just as I crossed. I couldn't believe it, but I DID IT! I ran my first 5K! WOO!!!! My result was 39 min and 25 sec which works out to a 12:42 mile. I'm pretty proud of that for my first time out!

B and I stayed together through the whole run and crossed the finish line together. :) He called me his "pace girl," and he was a huge part of my motivation to keep moving! I am so glad we could do this together. :)

Afterward, we picked up our gear, connected with Karla, and headed into Grant Park for the after party. We enjoyed chocolate fondue with marshmallows, rice krispie treats, apples, pretzels and bananas, some hot chocolate, and lots of chocolate!!! We hung around a bit to listen to the live music (Maggie Speaks), and just overall enjoy the beautiful day we had to be in the city for this race.

I am so proud of myself for this accomplishment. I'm not eager to do another 5K anytime soon, but I want to keep up the running for cardio, and maybe I'll be ready to do another 5K this summer at a more local spot. Overall, this has been an amazing experience and absolutely eye opening to know that this is something I can do (and did!).