Living My Life On Purpose: Race

Showing posts with label Race. Show all posts

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Life List #14: Train and Run in a Race

Over the summer, I started the Couch to 5K running program. Three times a week, I would go out and train myself to run long distance. I remember back to the very beginning when I thought I would literally fall over dead after running three minutes.

I'm not going to lie. It was hard. I have never been a runner. In fact, even after completing the C25K program, I still don't consider myself a runner. I actually hate running. Running hates me.

When I put this goal on my Life List, I knew it would be difficult to achieve. I don't have a whole lot of self-motivation when it comes to that type of thing. What I needed was a running buddy. I got one and she quit. Actually, a lot of people I know that have started the C25K program have quit. That, in itself, was motivation enough for me.

So I trained.

In the summer.

In triple-digit temperatures.

I would come home after running and always go to Jaden's room to stand in front of the fan. She would ask me about running and talk to me about my race. Every night, she would tell me good job. She would tell me that she wanted to come watch me run my race and win my medal.

September came. The race was here. I woke up early in the morning on the 24th, preparing myself for the four miles that were to come. I left the house with mini-goals; I wanted to make it to the one-mile marker without stopping, walk for about a minute, run to the next mile marker, walk for a minute, run to mile three, walk for a minute, and then cross the finish line running. My goal was a 12-minute mile; finishing around 48 minutes.

I stood in the corrals waiting for the race to start. I was excited and nervous! Could I do it?

I had looked at the course map ahead of time. I knew that the first mile was a straight run. Before I knew it, I had approached mile marker 2! I had missed the first mile marker and ran the entire first half of the race! I walked for about 30 seconds and then took off again.

I ran for the majority of the race, stopping to walk only a couple of times for about 30 seconds each.

I called Mike after I passed the third mile marker to let him know to watch for me; I was almost there!

As I ran up to the stadium, I looked for my family in the stands.

I saw them! They were yelling and cheering me on! To see them smiling and screaming my name totally made it all worth it.

I was almost there...

I did it, you guys! I ran four miles!

My official stats:
Overall Place: 757 out of 2838
Division Place (age): 56 out of 227
Gender Place: 399 out of 1983
Time: 46:38
Pace: 11:40

I was in the top 20% in my gender, the top 25% in my age, and the top 27% overall! I am so proud of my accomplishment.

I finished. I did not quit.

The best part was seeing Jaden's eyes light up when I showed her my medal.

Sure, I did it for myself, but I also did it for her.

Taylor was excited to get to share my banana :o)

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Wunning

I am not a runner. I have never been a runner. To me, the only reason to run was if someone was chasing me. BUT, I have always wanted to learn how to run. I see people doing it and they make it look so easy! I have friends talk about "going out for a run... and it just felt so good!" In my head, I always reply with, "bull crap." Naturally, the only thing to do was to add it to my Life List!

14. Train and run in a race.

Like some of my fellow bloggers, I have started the Couch to 5K running program. It is quite the challenge for me! I am training with my BFF and we prefer to call what we do, WUNNING. We walk and then we run and well, RALK sounds dumb. So, we wun. We wun every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening after the kiddos are in bed. The only problem is, it's always after dinner and if you have ever wun after dinner, you know what I mean when I say that my food starts to eat me from the inside out! It sucks. One night was super busy so I didn't get a chance to eat dinner before my wun meet-up and you know what? I felt great! I breezed through the wun and felt like I could go more! Then I stopped at Subway on the way home and get a foot long veggie sub, ate the ENTIRE thing, and hated life. Last night, I had chicken noodles and mashed potatoes two hours before our wun and my legs turned into knives that stabbed me with each stride. Last night killed me. Last night sucked. But we did it! Having each other for support makes it so much easier. Had I been wunning on my own, I would have wun straight to Starbucks, had a venti iced non-fat raspberry latte, and wobbled home. Actually, I mentioned that idea to Jennie and she just smiled... I think she was considering it a bit :o)

What? After all that rambling and you're just NOW telling me that you're not familiar with C25K? Well, allow me to educate you! Basically it is an outlined running program that takes a couch potato and turns them into a 5K runner in two months. Training is to be done three time a week. We are now on week three.

Week 1, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 1, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 1, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 2, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 2, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 2, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.
Week 3, Day 1: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
Week 3, Day 2: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
Week 3, Day 3: Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then do two repetitions of the following: Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds), Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes), Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Those three-minute stretches make me want to wun in front of a twuck. I don't know how I'll make it to (or survive) next week when we have to do this:

Brisk five-minute warm up walk, then: Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes), Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds), Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes), Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes), Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes), Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds), Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

We officially begin measuring our distance in miles. Oh boy... Luckily for us, our race isn't until September so we can stretch it out a little bit. BUT, our race is not a 5K. It is 4 miles. I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...