Greening Up the Mountains 5K

On Saturday, I ran my first 5K....ever. Sure, I have run many, many miles in soccer games, but that's a totally different ball game (pun intended). I can run for hours if I am playing a game, and winning is at stake, but for some reason just running, even running races has never appealed to me. However, now that I have pretty much retired from my soccer days for mommyhood, I thought running races is at least more competitive than some other forms of exercise and maybe I could force myself to "get into it". I have wanted to try a race for several years now, but never followed through on running one.

Earlier this year, I told Devan I wanted to run one and she said she would run with me. I'm all about having people to do stuff with so I signed us up and paid our money and we were committed.

Saturday dawned, bleak and gray, and rain lingered in the air. What a great day for a race! Okay, not really... I also did not sleep well because I was nervous. After having Micah, I have been working up to running several miles again, but haven't run 3 miles since he was born.  But I was determined we were going to run anyway. I was not going to back out after coming so close to meeting this personal goal of mine.

Devan and I arrived at Mark Watson Park, got our t-shirts and found our place in the middle of the pack of 93 runners at the starting line. And before we knew it, the race had begun. We took off setting a good pace, but were certainly not competing for first.

All throughout the race, Devan paced me and encouraged me. I thought I would reach a point where I would feel like I couldn't run anymore, but thanks to Zumba and Crossfit, I never did. We ran the whole race in 32:00. We didn't even really get to train and I know we can do better next time. Devan was awesome! She could have run the race probably 5 minutes faster, but she told me we were going to finish together.

Crossing the finish line was a pretty sweet feeling for this mama. I was so proud of us. For me, I accomplished a personal goal that I have had since 2009. And I didn't have to walk at all during the race. I also feel like I am getting back into good shape, which is important to me since having Micah. I have really missed playing soccer and have less enthusiasm for other forms of exercise, but I know I still need to exercise for my physical and mental state, no matter how busy I am, even if its just pushing the stroller, or walking a couple of miles with him in the backpack. Ultimately, I want to teach Micah how to play sports and that exercise is important to keep our bodies healthy.

So I know a 5K is not really a big deal, but I enjoyed it so much that I'm hoping to do more. Maybe it's just the beginning of something new :)