Hustle for Hunger 5K

Me on the last leg with my "personal trainer", Aaron York.

May 19th was the day of my big race.  My first 5K!  I have been training since January and felt fairly ready, though I still hate running:(

That day was also the day that me and two of my good friends went out to celebrate our birthdays.  So, we got mani-pedis in the morning and then went out to eat.  We ate Mexican (the prego lady chose) and I knew that wouldn't be all that great for my 4pm race, so I just cut a little off my quesadilla and boxed the rest up.  But I didn't stop before I ate a pile of chips and some really spicy salsa.  What was I thinking?!?

We ate way later than we thought so I had only 2 hours before the race.  I went home and got nervous.  I was going to go alone, but I was so nervous that I wanted Geo to come so I had to call around and find a babysitter.  Luckily, a friend's husband was home and offered to keep them:)  So Geo and I hurried to the race and we were later than I would have liked.  So, I didn't do much warming up and I had to go potty a couple of times because of all the water I drank because of the hot salsa I ate, etc, etc...The kicker?  It was 91 degrees.  91 DEGREES!!!  Misery.  Seriously.

 I started down the first leg of the race and wanted to die...and then the road turned and went uphill!  No shade at all.  Plus, people were stopping to walk right and left and I was not mentally prepared for that.  My brain was screaming at my body to keep going, but that only worked for 1.5 miles.  I walked for a bit after that.  When I hit the water table (probably halfway) I took some and asked the other 4 kids to throw their cups on me.  That helped a little, but I had already walked some and was not motivated to run the rest.

  I did start running again, and at about mile 2, maybe a bit later, the nausea kicked in (darn Mexican food!).  It was horrible.  I decided that it wasn't worth it to me to puke on the side of the road, so I walked some more.  I had about a half-mile left when I hit what I thought was the end, but it turned out you had to go a quarter of mile past the finish and then double back.  This is not good for me.  My brain sees the end and shuts down and that's it.  I continued on walking and then a friend of mine (not in the race) came up and said something like, "You can do this!  You are still below your time.  You can make it...run with me!"  So, I ran with him to the end and finished in 36:47.  I believe I was 92nd out of 125.  I didn't achieve my goal of running the whole thing, but I did come in under 40 minutes, which I was hoping for. So, all in all, it was ok (though I would not have said that right after the race!).  I decided this was going to be my warm up race and my official 5K is on June 16.  This race is at 8am so it will be cooler AND I will run it on an empty stomach (like I do every morning I run)!  I hope it will be better.


I have signed up for a 10K(6.4miles) in September and am now questioning my sanity.  I still hate running.  And I really don't want to run any farther.  I am comfortable running 2 miles when I run (it's fun to say that!) and I can't decide if I want to train for longer.  I need to decide soon, though, so I can get on it. Or not.

I'm walking past the "finish line" to finish the race.  I was so done at this point.  I don't even look like I'm in the middle of a race.  What a weird picture.