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