The Negatives: One of the issues I ran across was timing. I had forgotten about this race and only stumbled upon it again a couple of weeks ago when I was starting into the diet and fitness plan. I knew I'd only been back to running for a couple of weeks, so I knew I wasn't going to be able to run the whole thing. Even so I decided to give it a try. On the day of the event, I was awaken early by a bad dream related to something else going on in my life. I knew there was no way I was going to go back to sleep, so I got up, had a banana and some coffee, and got ready. I'd never competed in any 5K before, so I decided to get there a few minutes early to be sure I had everything squared away. The event started about a 1/2 mile walk from my house, so I headed out walking about an hour before the run was scheduled to start, giving myself some time to stretch and warm up along the way. Well, the problem was it took me about 30 seconds to check-in and get my packet. So there I was with 40 minutes to go, waiting. More importantly, trying to stay warmed up. It didn't happen.
The other issue was the start. By all accounts from the folks I talked with after the event it was a sloppy and unusual start. The event hosts had done a nice job warning folks in 5 minute increments of the approaching start, but when time came to actually start the event, it was pretty much "Hi-everyone-Thanks-for-coming-Ready?-Okay-Go!" About that quick, too. It caught quite a few folks off guard. Personally it got me flustered a bit and got me away from my plan to basically stick to doing a training run (I have a couch-to-5K interval-style training app on my phone I like to use). I started out by jogging right away and cramped up before I even made it to 1/2 a mile. Perfect.
The Positives: So I had to walk earlier than I really wanted in order to get the cramps to dissipate. This caused a couple of unexpected positives, namely me to re-focus myself and to come to the realization I was likely going to walk much more than I had expected. It also allowed a very nice lady named Cindy, who was primarily walking, to catch up with me. Cindy told me she was pretty sure she was the last person competing and it motivated me to keep up with her. I didn't really want to be last, but I definitely didn't want to be last by a wide margin. So we walked and talked and it was great. Shortly after the 1 mile mark I could tell that even though I was walking faster than I normally do that I was recovering from the leg cramps. Thanks to Cindy I was able jog/walk the rest of the distance. Most importantly: I FINISHED!
Overall I've got a long way to go to be able to finish an entire 5K running the whole way, but for having only been training for a little longer than 2 weeks I'm okay with the results. I didn't do as well as I would've liked (I finished last overall), but that just means I have room for improvement. The truth is that I'm never gonna set any record pace or see a overall 1st place finish. Still, at this point I need to stay focused on getting better rather than worrying about how I compare to other runners. If I can stick to the plan and keep doing what I'm doing I'm already headed in the right direction.
My Weekly Stats:
Starting weight: 304lbs
Weight at last update: 291lbs (-6lbs overall)
Current weight: 290lbs (-14lbs overall)
Exercise completed: 3mi walking,
8 mi run/walking
Other notes: I wish I'd had a faster time in the 5K, but I finished in under an hour which is pretty
much the only goal I had besides to finish. My final time was 52:25 for an average pace of 16:51/mi. There is definitely room for improvement there but everyone has to start somewhere, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment