run, ashley, run!
There was a time in my life about a year ago loooong ago when I thought 5k races were pretty lame. I had never even run 3 miles in my life (at that time I would run 1-2 miles at a time), but somehow I still held the opinion that 5k races were pretty much just family races so that kids could run. The real races were anything bigger, and in all honesty, if you ran one of those, I probably thought you were crazy, because who really spends that much time running? Obviously I have a lot of opinions about running that I feel very strongly about, and I don't even know why.
You can tell that I didn't think 5k's were a big deal because on my bucket list, my real goal was to do a sprint triathlon (1.2 mile run, 2.4 mile bike ride, and 150 yd. swim) and then (since I wasn't sure I'd be able to train in time for the one in September) I gave myself a loophole: or a 5k at the very least. You can tell from that sentence alone that I thought a 5k was not even cool.
Well, I'm not sure why I ever felt that way, but I can tell you I don't feel that way anymore. And it's not even because I've now run one, because I actually changed before I started training for my race. I think I just got excited about training for a race so I forgot my weird prejudices against 5k's.
For the past 3 years, I have wanted to go to the Tulip Festival but somehow we've never made it. So this year I figured the perfect way to go was to do the Tulip Festival 5k! (Don't make the same mistake I did of assuming you are going to be running through tulip fields the whole time. It's only for about one minute that you see any tulips. You do, however, get two passes to return to the Tulip Festival, so I guess it works out okay.)
I started an 8-week training program about 7 weeks before the race. The training program was basically to run 3x/week and to add a quarter mile each week, starting the first week with 1.5 miles. I don't really do mileage runs though, so since I generally run a 9-10 minute mile, I just changed miles to minutes: 15 minutes the first week, 17.5 minutes the next, and so forth.
Unfortunately, I got sick not once, but twice during my 7 week training period, so there were two full weeks in there that I couldn't run! I wasn't super concerned, because I was still doing good to up my minutes and still feeling pretty good on my runs, but I definitely think I would have been better prepared had I had those two additional weeks to run. I finished out my training running 27.5 minutes--never made it to the 30 minute runs I was supposed to be doing the last week. I wanted my goal to finish in under 27 minutes, but without those two weeks, I made my goal to finish in under 30 minutes.
Race day was Saturday, and though I had felt great on my previous Saturday and Tuesday runs, my Thursday run (which I cut down to 20 minutes) was quite difficult, and race day was even more difficult because it was my longest yet. But I ran my hardest, only stopping to walk for about 20 feet on two occasions. It was hard and I really considered giving up several times (just ask Russ, when it comes to hard exercise, I give up way too easily) but I had trained for this, and I knew I had the ability; I just had to maintain the willpower.
*TMI ahead*
But with just over a tenth of a mile to go, something happened that has never happened to me on a run--I started heaving. It was quite uncomfortable to feel the need to vomit while running and to really not want to. I was so close! So I managed to keep it down throughout the finishing stretch (but continued to heave), crossed the finish line, and immediately collapsed and vomited.
Remember how I said I used to think 5k's were no big deal? Well, apparently it's a long enough race to induce vomiting. Geez.
Russ and some guy whose face I never saw were kind enough to grab me some napkins and a water bottle. After I was done with all of that, it was the weirdest thing to feel totally fine, and in fact, so much better and so well-energized. I was just happy to no longer be running and to not have that awful heaving feeling anymore.
*okay it's over*
Russ was a rockstar and his time was 23:50! He even got first place in his gender/age division: twenty males ages 25-29. He's so cool :)
My time came in at 29:59! I kind of loved that it was the last possible amount of time to still fit within my goal :) I got tenth place out of like 54 in my division.
Russ was so nice to me the whole day. He just kept saying how proud he was of me and how awesome I was for running that race. I loved it every single time he said it :)
Despite the race's difficulty, and despite me getting sick, I'm still very happy that I finished this task. I really liked working toward something, and I really liked seeing my improvement. I mean, before preparing for this race, 15-20 minute races were always a struggle for me, but now that length of race feels pretty good to me, and I know I can run more! So I'm very happy with the way everything turned out, and I'll definitely be running more 5k's in the future :) Maybe I'll even join the crazies someday and do a 10k or a half marathon ;)
Have you ever worked toward a goal like this? How did you feel when you made it? :)
You can tell that I didn't think 5k's were a big deal because on my bucket list, my real goal was to do a sprint triathlon (1.2 mile run, 2.4 mile bike ride, and 150 yd. swim) and then (since I wasn't sure I'd be able to train in time for the one in September) I gave myself a loophole: or a 5k at the very least. You can tell from that sentence alone that I thought a 5k was not even cool.
Well, I'm not sure why I ever felt that way, but I can tell you I don't feel that way anymore. And it's not even because I've now run one, because I actually changed before I started training for my race. I think I just got excited about training for a race so I forgot my weird prejudices against 5k's.
I started an 8-week training program about 7 weeks before the race. The training program was basically to run 3x/week and to add a quarter mile each week, starting the first week with 1.5 miles. I don't really do mileage runs though, so since I generally run a 9-10 minute mile, I just changed miles to minutes: 15 minutes the first week, 17.5 minutes the next, and so forth.
Unfortunately, I got sick not once, but twice during my 7 week training period, so there were two full weeks in there that I couldn't run! I wasn't super concerned, because I was still doing good to up my minutes and still feeling pretty good on my runs, but I definitely think I would have been better prepared had I had those two additional weeks to run. I finished out my training running 27.5 minutes--never made it to the 30 minute runs I was supposed to be doing the last week. I wanted my goal to finish in under 27 minutes, but without those two weeks, I made my goal to finish in under 30 minutes.
Race day was Saturday, and though I had felt great on my previous Saturday and Tuesday runs, my Thursday run (which I cut down to 20 minutes) was quite difficult, and race day was even more difficult because it was my longest yet. But I ran my hardest, only stopping to walk for about 20 feet on two occasions. It was hard and I really considered giving up several times (just ask Russ, when it comes to hard exercise, I give up way too easily) but I had trained for this, and I knew I had the ability; I just had to maintain the willpower.
*TMI ahead*
But with just over a tenth of a mile to go, something happened that has never happened to me on a run--I started heaving. It was quite uncomfortable to feel the need to vomit while running and to really not want to. I was so close! So I managed to keep it down throughout the finishing stretch (but continued to heave), crossed the finish line, and immediately collapsed and vomited.
Remember how I said I used to think 5k's were no big deal? Well, apparently it's a long enough race to induce vomiting. Geez.
Russ and some guy whose face I never saw were kind enough to grab me some napkins and a water bottle. After I was done with all of that, it was the weirdest thing to feel totally fine, and in fact, so much better and so well-energized. I was just happy to no longer be running and to not have that awful heaving feeling anymore.
*okay it's over*
Russ was a rockstar and his time was 23:50! He even got first place in his gender/age division: twenty males ages 25-29. He's so cool :)
My time came in at 29:59! I kind of loved that it was the last possible amount of time to still fit within my goal :) I got tenth place out of like 54 in my division.
Russ was so nice to me the whole day. He just kept saying how proud he was of me and how awesome I was for running that race. I loved it every single time he said it :)
Despite the race's difficulty, and despite me getting sick, I'm still very happy that I finished this task. I really liked working toward something, and I really liked seeing my improvement. I mean, before preparing for this race, 15-20 minute races were always a struggle for me, but now that length of race feels pretty good to me, and I know I can run more! So I'm very happy with the way everything turned out, and I'll definitely be running more 5k's in the future :) Maybe I'll even join the crazies someday and do a 10k or a half marathon ;)
Have you ever worked toward a goal like this? How did you feel when you made it? :)
Hey! I've seen plenty of people throw up at wayyyy less distances than three miles! I ran the 4x4 relay in highschool (400 meters) and I SWEAR its one of the hardest events because its a sprint but its a looooong sprint (as compared to the 100 haha) my body died every single time I competed in that event and while I never threw up, I know lots and lots of people who did.
ReplyDeleteVery cool that you did it! Your time is definitely better than mine would have been too, so I'd say you deserve to feel proud about it!
Yayyy, congrats!! I used to be the same way about running. HATED it. Signing up for a race is the best motivation though. It can become addicting after a while (says the girl who's gone running twice this year...).
ReplyDeletei am so proud of you!! that is SO awesome!
ReplyDelete