I was never a big New Year's goal kind of person but after marrying Wes I have really enjoyed setting aside some time at the end of the year to reflect on what I have accomplished the previous year and what I want to accomplish the coming year.
Well I felt a little overambitious this last time around and decided that two of my goals were going to be:
1. A 5K run
2. A Sprint Triathlon (which I must admit I asked to have taken off the list)
I don't know what I was thinking.
I guess I just wanted good reasons to get in shape after having Sadie.
However, I really, really dislike running. Mainly because I'm horrible at it AND I don't like pain.
But I decided I wanted to meet my goal and so I signed up for the South Davis Recreation Center's Sweethearts run, in February.
And so January I spent the majority of evenings at the gym trying to figure out two things.
One, how I was ever going to run 3.1 miles without stopping.
Two, why people like running so much.
The week that the run was to take place I had a lump in my throat all week.
I know that sounds a little dramatic (it is a little) but everyone knows how it feels when you are about to do something that you aren't terribly good at and you know people are going to be watching you, win or lose.
Before the run the fasted time I had run the 5k was 28:12.
When I ran through the finish line I thought I had run it at 27:40! So exciting but everyone had to wait and Wait and WAIT for the results until about five minutes ago.
It showed that I ran it at 27:46, so a little slower.
But they started everyone at the same time but we all didn't cross the start line at the same time so I am thinking I ran it a little faster than that.
But either way I ran it without stopping or slowing down and I ran it faster than I had done before. Both were things I was hoping to be able to do.
Here are a couple of pictures.
I took 14th out of 33 women in my age division and 126 overall out of 455 people.
I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the things that I have learned.
So here it goes:
1. I still don't like running but I like competition which may in fact drive me to do another run. :)
2. Eating half a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream the night before a race doesn't really change things too much.
3. Running alone is, well, lonely. (Next time Wes offers to run with me I'm going to take him up on the offer.)
4. And finally, training and exercising because you have a goal really does motivate you to work out more and train harder.
As a bonus, I also am three pounds lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight. Sweet!
