I Survived my 5k!

If you’ve been following along to my randomness, you know that I decided impulsively last Wednesday to go ahead and run the Baltimore Running Festival 5k on Saturday. I was incredibly unprepared since I hadn’t actually run 3 miles in over 16 months (before conceiving Jack). I decided that it was a total “mind over matter” moment though and decided to just suck it up and run the darn thing.

My only goal was to run the entire race (no walking allowed) and to complete it in less than 40 minutes.

Jack and I woke up super early to get ready and pick up my brother, Jason, on the way to Baltimore. Jason had offered to hang out with Jack while I ran, which made this little challenge possible. Even though we gave ourselves plenty of time, we were (of course) running late.

After we parked and were finally walking towards the race start, we split up so that I could jog over in time for the race to start. Yeah, I said jog. It was such a waste of running energy. By time I got there, the race already started, so that kind of sucked. Timing chips were in our race numbers though, so in theory my actual race time wouldn’t start until I crossed the start line.

I turned on my super awesome iPod mix that I created especially for the race and started the run. One cool thing about starting dead last is that you get to pass a bunch of people! And pass I did, first I jogged passed a couple cute grandma types with walkers. Then, I darted around some blind walkers with their handlers.

Yeah, I felt like a freaking Olympian with my incredible quickness.

Um, no. No I didn’t.

Anyways, the first mile was pretty easy. I had purposefully loaded some chill songs on my mix, so I kind of relaxed into the run. There were a TON of people there though, so I was continuously darting around runners and walkers so that I wouldn’t smack into the back of anyone. All in all, I passed almost 1,000 people – which when you think about it like that is pretty darn cool.

I started feeling it somewhere between 1.5 to 2.5 miles – that was the point where I had to start giving myself a little pep talk. It pretty much went like this:

Me to self: Come on, you can DO IT! You pushed a baby out of your hooha, you can totally run three stinking miles!

Self to me: I can’t. This sucks and I would so much rather be sitting on the couch in my pajamas.

Me to self: Don’t be a little bitch! Look at all the people you are passing. You are a BEAST. (Looks at thin and beautiful girl in an adorable running outfit). See that girl? You just passed her. I PASSED YOU SKINNY GIRL! BooYA!

Self to me: Okay, that’s pretty cool.

Me to self: See that guy. Yeah, I’m going to pass him too…. BOOM. That JUST happened!

Self to me: {giggles} I am kind of a beast.

Me to self: Dude, this song is awesome. I’m totally going to sing along in my head to it and gesture wildly because I’m AWESOME. {Starts run-dancing along with ipod song and mouthing the words. May accidently be singing some of the words out loud}

Self to me: Um, lets dial it back a bit Ms. Crazy.

So yeah, that was pretty much what was going through my head for the middle part of the race. At one point between 2.5 miles and 3 miles I was convinced that they moved the mile marker sign. I don’t know if it was that I was running uphill or that I kept passing and then being passed by an 8 year old girl, but this part of the race seemed to go on slow motion.

When I FINALLY passed the 3 mile sign I started sprinting towards the finish line like I had made the mistake of eating lunch at Taco Bell. My arms were flailing around, I had an angry look on my face and I may have shoved people out of my way.

It wasn’t graceful, but it was a finish!

Since I started the race late, I didn’t know if I had accomplished my goal of completing it under 40 minutes. However, later that evening I was able to see my stats online… and I finished the race in 38 minutes and 49 seconds!

{Insert victory dance here! Victory dance is kind of lame though because my body hurts.}

Yes, I know that my time isn’t fast by any means – but I’m darn proud of myself anyways. With no preparation at all, I knocked out three miles in under 40 minutes! My overall place was 2,205 out of 3,181, so I was faster than 976 other people. And of the 2,022 women who ran the race, I came in at 1,310^th – so I totally BEAT 712 other ladies (100 of them were in my age group)!

So yes, I’m proud of my accomplishment. And if I can accomplish this random goal what in the heck is holding me back from my other goals?

Related articles

• Last Minute (Possibly Stupid) Decision (pocketfulofjoules.com)