There are awards?

An interesting thought came up in a conversation today.

In my 5K race on Saturday, I placed 662 out of 779 people. I was 51 out of 63 in my age division.

This got me to thinking...why do runners race?

I can't speak for all runners, but I can speak for myself (and we'll use the term 'runner' loosely here). I entered this race not to win the overall race or to win one of the three awards given in my age division. I entered this race to REACH A GOAL. I entered to cross it off my bucket list. I entered it as part of the overall goal to lose weight.

But most of all, I entered it to know that I could race a 5K.

So often, we hear that people only enter a competition to win. And when they don't win, they're disappointed.

Of course you're disappointed - you had no other reason to enter the race than to win. And when you come in 662 out of 779, you're going to be extremely disappointed. When you come in 4 out of 779, you'll be disappointed because you didn't receive a little trophy.

But if you enter the race to finish; if you enter it to reach a personal goal; if you enter it to take a step towards a bigger goal, then there is NO WAY you can be disappointed if you finish. And the best part? Even if you didn't finish, you still tried and made the effort. And I bet you learned something from it.

For all of you who don't think you can do something, or think that since you're not going to win, you're not going to play, I urge you to consider to think again. I told myself for years that I wasn't a runner and I finished my first 5K this past weekend.

Show the world what you're made of, and go out there and do it. Learn from it. And do it better the next time.

"No, maybe I can't win. Maybe the only thing I can do is just take everything he's got. But to beat me, he's going to have to kill me. And to kill me, he's gonna have to have the heart to stand in front of me. And to do that, he's got to be willing to die himself. I don't know if he's ready to do that. I don't know." - Rocky IV

The RACE!

So, I'm sure one of these days I'll come down off the high of having finished a 5K. I realize it's really not a big deal to most people, but it is a big deal to me.

If you'd told me a year ago that I'd have run a 5K this past weekend, I would have said you were nuts. I don't run for anything.

My goal was to finish the Kalamazoo Klassic in 40 minutes or less. My STRETCH goal was to finish in less than 38 minutes.

The result?

36:36 minutes!!!

Now, in the scheme of things, I was 662 out of 779 runners. But, I WASN'T LAST!!!!

I'm really excited about this, and I've already signed up for Ele's Race on July 22. I might try to find something else before then, but my schedule is a little bit crazy, so I may just have to keep up a regular training schedule and keep pushing forward.

The week before the 5K

So the week leading up to the 5K ended up being a little crazy between quite possibly pushing myself too much one day, work and just life in general!

On Saturday, June 9, I was scheduled to walk for two hours for the Lansing Jaycees at Relay for Life. It's not my favorite track, as it's a dirt track, but I put on my running shoes and decided to walk, even though I'd thought about running a little. I was scheduled to be in Kalamazoo again during the weekend for their Relay for Life, and I was also going to run the Kalamazoo Valley River Trail with Dave. In total, I ended up walking/running about 9.85 miles. Needless to say, I took Sunday off.

Here's a rundown of what happened during the week:

Saturday, June 9 (walking):

6.05 miles
1:49:34 minutes
490 calories
18:07 minutes/mile

Saturday, June 9 (run):

3.80 miles
49:17 minutes
450 calories
12:58 minutes/mile

Tuesday, June 12 (run):

2.56 miles
38:13 minutes
270 calories
14:54 minutes/mile

Wednesday, June 13 (run):

3.10 miles
38:17 minutes
381 calories
12:21 minutes/mile

I really took it easy during the week, and I think that paid off. Look for the 5K update in the next post!

Weeks 10-11 - Almost there

Not that I'm not going to still have work to do after I finish my first 5K next week, but I'm getting kind of nervous for the Kalamazoo Klassic. I'm just trying to accept that I'm going to be slow and that I'll be successful when I cross the finish line.

One of these days, I'll have something more profound to say. Right now, I'm getting ready to head to trivia (and hopefully our team will post a decent score).

Since the last post, I've run a total of 12 miles. Here's the breakdown:

Saturday, June 2 (run):

3.20 miles
40:54 minutes
358 calories
12:45 minutes/mile

Sunday, June 3 (run):

3.11 miles
37:59 minutes
346 calories
12:14 minutes/mile

Wednesday, June 6 (run) - this is an estimate since my GPS screwed up. Luckily, my running partner's worked.

2.59 miles
32:53 minutes
289 calories
12:41 minutes/mile

Thursday, June 7 (run):

3.13 miles
38:43 minutes
349 calories
12:21 minutes/mile

Week 10 - Closer to the 5K

Since the last update, I've done a pretty good job of staying on schedule. But it was HARD. The heat this past holiday weekend was debilitating and made it harder to run. However, here's the update.

Thursday, May 24 (run):

3.10 miles
38:53 minutes
348 calories
12:33 minutes/mile

Saturday, May 26 (ridiculously HUMID/HOT run):

2.90 miles
37:07 minutes
325 calories
12:48 minutes/mile

Sunday, May 27 (walk):

4.10 miles
1:00:47 minutes
458 calories (though, not accurate since I didn't change the settings on the phone)
14:49 minutes/mile

Monday, May 28 (run):

2.16 miles
26:51 minutes
242 calories
12:24 minutes/mile

I've noticed that the first couple miles are fine, but anything after 2 starts to get slower. Obviously, endurance is an issue, but I know that will come with time in order to be able to do longer runs.

My goal with the 5K is to finish in 40 minutes or less. I think it's doable, but also don't want to push myself too hard as I build up to this.

Getting Through - Week 9

Apparently, I'm now in Week 9 and just can't count. I blame it on the week that I took off at the beginning of May.

After taking the entire weekend off and losing my motivation, I endured enormous peer pressure yesterday and have decided to do my first 5K - in 3 weeks. June 16, Kalamazoo Klassic. I do not harbor ill will towards those that encouraged (making) me to do it. But I figured if it got me to see my friend Shawn herd us to the finish line, why not?

I have no delusions that I will run the entire thing. In fact, I'll probably run only about 50-60% of it. But, I'll finish. I know I can do that!

Meanwhile, in an effort to get my friend Dave (over at http://dqworthams.wordpress.com/) back on track with his Couch to 5K (and encourage him to run the Kalamazoo Klassic), we went for a run on the Lansing River Trail. This is the first time I've actually run with someone, so it was a little odd for me. But, I could still talk while doing so, so that's good!

While it was a little slower pace than what I left off with last week, it was still fairly good. It's been pretty humid and hot out over the past week and since I hadn't been out in a week, I'd say it was a success. Plus, Dave had his best pace so far!

Wednesday, May 23:

4.08 miles
56:41 minutes
458 calories
13:53 minutes/mile

I'll be out again tonight. Then taking Friday off and planning on going Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I've really got to try to keep to the 4 times a week schedule leading up to the race!

Motivation - Week 8

So, I started a more regular schedule last week. I had looked at my past outings and saw the pattern that I had improved from 15 minutes/mile at the beginning to somewhere between 13-14 minutes/mile recently. I decided to make a new short term goal to get to between 12-13 minutes/mile. I was actually able to get there the two times I ran last week. Mostly because I upped the amount I was running. I'll try to keep this up for a bit, then lower my time goal again.

Then the end of the week just got to me. I've lost my motivation - not just for going out to run but for some other things too. This isn't a good time for it either, as I have some deadlines to meet both personally and professionally in the next couple of weeks. I skipped my run on Saturday because I was gone most of the day. I skipped my walk on Sunday because my body was really sore and once I sat down from getting home from face painting at the East Lansing Art Festival, I couldn't talk myself into getting up again. Plus, I had laundry to do.

I'm really looking forward to this coming 3-day weekend. I have nowhere I'm planning to be except home. I have grandiose plans to work on paperwork, clean my apartment and make sure I run and walk. The main goal is to give myself a break (sort of a mini-vacation), since I haven't taken a long period of time off (unless you count that mono thing in the fall) in quite awhile. I'm also hoping to sit down and figure out when I may be able to take another longer weekend over the summer. I'm starting to think that lack of a break is having an effect on me and my motivation.

I just feel like there's something missing and I can't put my finger on it. I can see light in the future when I look ahead in about a month or so, but for the time being, it seems I'll just have to push through.

Recap time!

Sunday, May 13 (walk):

4.12 miles
55:35 minutes
327 calories
13:28 minutes/mile

Tuesday, May 15 (run):

2.08 miles
26:36 minutes
233 calories
12:47 minutes/mile

Wednesday, May 16 (run):

2.15 miles
26:43 minutes
241 calories
12:25 minutes/mile