Race for the Cure

This weekend, I participated in the Susan G. Koman Race for the Cure. It was my first 5K in literally years, and possibly the first time I was attempting to run 3 miles since probably high school when I was a competitive distance runner on a nationally ranked cross country team. Put in that perspective, the fact I huffed and puffed my way through the 5K is really a little bit embarassing.

The race was amazingly emotional. You get to the starting line and there are all of these people who have "In memory of" and "In celebration of" signs pinned to their backs. There are survivors running too. The statistics are sobering. But despite the emotional context of the race, it was also amazing to see that in Sweat Sock City, which is not known for being athletic, that something like 30,000 people showed up. I was a last minute registrant for the noncompetitive run, and my bib was in the 14,000s.

My goal was to be able to run 2 miles at the race. The course went right by my place and my goal was to be ablt to run to my street. This, I felt, would be a stretch, because the most I've run recently is one mile. My mile time is about 12 minutes right now, again kind of sad when I think about to high school when my mile time was around 7 minutes. So my secondary goal was to finish the 3.1 miles in 40 minutes. I was pretty sure that was doable. After all, I knew I could walk 3 miles with no problem.

The skies opened up just before the race and we all got completely drenched. This turned out to be a good thing actually as it was quite warm and the rain cooled us all down. The rain stopped during the run so that was nice. There were people cheering for us all the way and police officers had blocked off all the streets so that this ocean of human support could just roll its way to the finish line. It was actually pretty amazing to see just how many people had come to participate.

I felt really good at first mile and pushed to the second mile, and I was still feeling pretty good, except for the acknowledgment my knees aren't as young as they once were. I had a little trouble with the one gradual slope on the course, again embarassing considering I was a pretty good hill runner back in high school. I switched to the grass on the side of the road for the remainder of the course, and that helped out with the knees. The third mile was rough and I can't say my run was much faster than most people's walks, but hey, I didn't stop! I'm happy to report that I crossed the finish line at the 40-minute mark, running the entire way. (In high school, I did a 5K in around 22 minutes).

There's a 5-miler in December that I'm going to shoot for now. My goal for that is to run the 3 miles without looking like I'm about to pass out on the side of the road. I originally was going to try to drop my mile time to 10 minutes, but now my goal is longevity. I think the mile time will come as I keep working at it. After all, a month ago, I couldn't even run a mile, let alone finish a 5K. So all in all, it was a very good experience for a very good cause.