I am strong

I decided last week that I was going to run the Hotter than Hades 5K on post again this year. I haven't been running much in the last few weeks and there have been several reasons for that. But after I had such a good run last weekend, I decided to give it a try. Plus I need to start working in a run every now and then to get ready for the Wounded Warrior 8K. Since I did two miles last weekend, I figured a 5K would be good for my next run. I finally really decided to do it the night before. My sleep schedule has been off so I knew getting up for it was going to be hard but I decided to try.

When my alarm went off I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep.  Getting up was HARD. I was debating with myself about whether I was going to go back to sleep or give it a try. Finally, I forced myself to get up and get ready. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed to the start. This was the first time I had gone to one of these 5Ks completely alone. That made it hard. Usually I either have a friend with me that is also running it or Mac is there. Not having him there was harder than I expected. He has never run one of them with me because when I was doing them last year, he had a stress fracture and couldn't run. But that meant he was always at the finish line.

We got lined up for the start and waited for the gun. I started RunKeeper as I crossed the start line to prompt my intervals and track my actual time since there are no chips, just a race clock that starts with the gun. I did my usual with this course and walked the first 5 minutes as my warm up. I've made the mistake of trying to run from the start before and it typically ends badly since the entire first half mile is up hill. After my first five minutes I ran the last little bit of the incline before making the turn to go back. The one mile mark is also the finish line so as I got close to it I realized I was making pretty good time. In the past, when I was passing the clock at the end of my first mile, the winners were crossing the finish line. This time, they were still about a quarter of a mile away. It made me happy and gave me a boost in confidence that I could finally finish near my goal 5K time.

I really wanted to finish in like 45-46 minutes. I have never sustained a 15 min mile pace for more than 2 miles but I was hopeful. I was doing my new favorite intervals of one minute running and one minute walking. I felt good and I knew I was keeping a pretty good pace. After the first two miles I was thinking I could actually do it in 44 something which was a little mind boggling for me. I could feel that I was getting a little tired(which I think had a lot to do with the humidity) but I kept pushing forward. Finally I was close enough to see the finish even though I was about a quarter of a mile away.

 As I got closer to the finish, I thought that the clock said 44 something when I was still too far to make it so I gave up on a sub 45 minute time. But then when I was about 50 yards away, I saw that it said 44:24 and I realized I could make it, especially if I pushed harder. I took a deep breath and sped up for the last little bit to push to the finish line. There was a guy at the finish line cheering me on and waiting to give out high fives to everyone. As I crossed the line with a clock time of under 45 minutes I hit his hand and sort of yelled "yes!" A teenage guy on the side of the road laughed at me and at first it ticked me off but then I decided I didn't care. I had just done something that a year ago, I never thought was possible. I grabbed my phone and checked my actual time and was shocked to see 44:28. I was not only under 45 minutes I was more than 30 seconds under 45 minutes. I know this is not a great time for most people but for a woman that ran her first 5K with an average pace of over and 18 minute mile a year and a half ago, come in under 45 minutes is a huge deal.

I was a little embarrassed about my reaction at the finish and the guy laughing at me. I started to just run straight to my car but I decided I needed water first. Finally, we found some cups and I was able to get some cold water before heading to the parking lot. As I was walking away, a guy standing near by called out" Good job." I was caught a little off guard but I thanked him and kept walking. As I crossed the start line again  I saw that it said "I am strong." Of course it said this because it's the Army and they are playing off of the Army Strong motto, but it sort of hit me that it was true for me for many reasons. I decided to take a picture of it as a reminder. There was a family walking by as I snapped the photo and the dad asked me if I could take a picture of his family and text it to him. I said of course, even though his wife was embarrassed that he even asked.  As we were talking he congratulated me as well. I said something about being laughed at but that I didn't care because I was 10 minutes faster than ever before. His wife said "Screw 'em" and he told me that when I crossed the finish line, he wanted to run out there and give me a hug but he was afraid it would freak me out. He said he could tell I had done my best and it touched him to see someone giving their all. We all continued walking to the parking lot together and talked a little more. they were telling me that this was the first time they had run as a family and that was why they wanted the picture. I told them about my half marathons and that I was dragging Mac into doing my next one with me. Then we said our goodbyes and went on our way.

As I climbed in the car I realized how far I have truly come. No I still am not seeing the results on the scale or with the tape measure that I want but I can tell my body is changing. Clothes are fitting differently. I feel better and I am getting so much stronger. I am faster and I am more fit. I know I am making changes for the better and I know that if I stick with it, I will eventually see some results.

I'm really glad I got out of bed.

A good reminder

 Once I got home, I checked out what had been uploaded to RunKeeper and I was shocked to see how steady my paces really were. You can also see where I kicked it up at the end for the finish.