First 5K Report

It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly but warming up. We picked up my friend, Cris and headed over to Como Lake for the Fearless 5K and 2 laps around the lake. I had my hand knit mitts and cowl, so I was ready to go.


Oddly enough, I wasn't nervous. In fact, I think I was a little too laid back. I remember in high school I did a presentation where the teacher commented that we were a little too laid back. Maybe when I get too nervous my nerves shut down and I just survive that way.

We lined up in the back of the pack. What I didn't realize until afterward, was that they started the 1.5 mile walkers at the same time! So we were lined up with the walkers. Because of that, it was hard to start running. So we had to walk until there was open space. There were a few people in costume and even a wedding party.

I think that I started off too fast, even though I didn't think I did. I started to run a minute, walk a minute and had a hard time running just a minute! What happened to my 6-8 minute runs?! For the recovery walks, I was going faster than usual because Cris can walk just as fast as I run. So perhaps I wasn't getting my recovery walks in quite right. Whatever the case, I was feeling very turtle-like.



May I just say, that I had the best cheering section? My brothers & sisters in law came out to cheer me on. Even baby Sam made an appearance, but apparently sleeping was more important to running to him right now. I even got flowers and a balloon.

And so we started our second lap. We seemed to hit more of our stride. I started to walk slower, at a better pace and was able to run at least a minute in between. I also noticed that there were not many people behind us anymore! That must have been when the walk was over. The crowd was definitely thinned out and I was thinking, "are we last?"


But there were at least a few people behind us. There was one lady that was very inspiring. She walked and ran like us and was always just a few yards behind. This whole time, I was running and walking, and I realized that my mind was still thinking this was a training run. That I didn't want to push too hard and get injured or tired out or whatever. But then I said to myself, "Hello - this is a race! This is what I was training for." And then I pushed myself more. I was still frustrated that I couldn't run as much as I had in the past. I'm not sure if it was because I hadn't run much the 2 weeks before, if it was a different location or if it was just nerves. But anyway, we did finish.


I was hoping for 45 minutes, but the time was flipped to 54. We were some of the last ones, but hey, I knew that I might be last going in. The good thing is, there is a lot of room for improvement for the next race.

This was a good race to go to for a first one. It was fairly low key and we only had about 5-6 people pass us during the first lap. The people were very friendly and helpful as well. Thank you to all of my cheering crew!

First race done. Now we'll see what's next.