Back in high school and college I used to jog for exercise and stress relief. At one point I thought I might like to run a marathon, but I never came to enjoy running enough to make anything that long feasible! Ha! At some point in college I changed to walking and that became my preferred form of exercise for a long time. I thought I'd try jogging again a few times, but each time I felt like I was about to die before finishing one block! But I never took running a race off of my "bucket list"...
Back in February, I decided it was time to go for it. I downloaded the Couch to 5k training program on my ipod, found a few 5k races and started running. I already had a double jogging stroller that I use for walking with the kids and it works great for running, too.
The Couch to 5k program plans 3 workouts a week, for 9 weeks. The first week I ran for 1 minute, walked for a minute and a half, and repeated 8 times. I honestly felt that running for a 1 minute was maxing me out! I thought I was in better shape than that, but I guess I was wrong! Well, week by week the workouts progressed to more running, less walking, until finally at the end I was able to run 30 minutes straight!
Last Saturday I ran in a local race! The Grand Valley Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k and 5k was an out and back course, beginning and ending at the town center in Palisade. It was a beautiful day, and I had the best cheering team ever! Brad, Cora and Peter cheered me on at the start, drove to meet me just past the one-mile mark, and then drove back in time to cheer me through the finish line.
My friend, Bridget, also ran the race. I finished at 28:06! My goal was 30 minutes so I was very happy with the time I made. The surprise of the day was that I came in 3rd for the women, 13th overall! I don't think that 28 minutes is normally a 3rd place time, but all you have to do to win 3rd is run raster than all but 2! I guess I did that! Hahaa! We had a good laugh about it and enjoyed the surprise!
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