Valentine's 5K Run

The first race of the year! I was completely unready for this race. My plan this year was to start running again on February 1st. But that same time, a blizzard decided to roll through town giving us over a foot of snow and cold weather! So much for that plan.

Instead, I went cold turkey on my first race. This was going to be interesting. Last time I ran was in the first week of November. Not to mention, earlier this week we had our work holiday party which consisted of playing dodgeball. I had slightly twisted my ankle and I was completely sore from head to toe for days. 

This is one of the races that Joshua will do with me and he too had not ran in a long time. What did we get ourselves into?

We took two cars down to the race area since Joshua had to go to work right afterwards. We got ourselves our bib numbers and relaxed before the race. We finally headed towards the starting area where we ended up waiting 10 minutes for it to start after the official start time. Even though it was 35 degrees out, it felt warm since the days before that, the temp was in the 10s. But it was still cold while standing around outside and waiting.

Finally the race started and off we went. Joshua was being very considerate and instead of leaving me in the dust, he ran with me. In the beginning, I thought this was going to be a piece of cake. Then I started wondering where the first mile marker was as I was breathing heavily. This is gonna be a long race. 

Then a mile and a half into it, I felt my ankle acting up. Great. I pushed through the pain and reached the second mile marker. One more mile to go. I finally got my breathing under control and concentrated on finishing the race in under 30 minutes. 

I finally see the finish line. Normally, this is where I get a burst of energy and sprint to the finish line. However, being out of shape and my ankle really killing me now, I just continued my pace to the finish.

At first, I was not happy with my time. But considering this was my first run in months and my messed up ankle, I decided my time was pretty good. I finished in 31 minutes and 3 seconds. Just less than 10 minutes/mile. Not the best but I'll live with it. I'll have to improve on the minute mileage over the next few months. 

I found a couple more races for April. Another 5K race called the Poker Run where the best poker hand wins the race, not the fastest time. And the American Cancer Society 10K run to raise money in honor of my aunt.

Looking forward to the real running season...as soon as this snow melts :)