Approximately a year ago tomorrow (okay, it was actually June 29th, so a little less than a year), I strapped on my first timing chip and stepped up to the start line of my first ever road race.
I ran a 5K in 30:37, without stopping once. I haven't looked back since.
Tomorrow I'll be running the same 5K at my work, and have high hopes to finally break 30 minutes. I've run hundreds of miles (wow, that's kind of crazy to say) since that last race, and I know I can run a lot farther than I did then, let's just hope I can run faster!
I've done a few 3.1 mile training races and come in under 30 minutes, so I've got my fingers crossed. Most of the people that run it are pretty quick (i.e. 102 out of 116 that ran it last year came in under 30 minutes), so hopefully I can find someone to use as a pacer and between them and my Garmin, I can achieve one of my big goals for the year. I plan to do at least a few more to better my time this summer, and then hopefully I can go off and do a 10k under an hour... we'll see about that.
I haven't been running as much as I probably should be, or want to be. But I've been doing a somewhat crazy amount of zumba, so I think I'm pretty strong cardio wise. My plan is to run the first two miles around the same pace... aiming for somewhere between 9:15 and 9:30, kick it up in the third mile, and for the last quarter mile go pretty much all out. I know the course much better this year, since I've walked and run it several times over the last few months, so I'll know where the ups and downs are and how much I have left.
Regardless of what happens, its crazy to think I've actually stuck with this for over a year. Granted I took some time off in the late fall/early winter, but I've stayed with it for the most part - more than anything I have before. Even though I played sports in high school, I don't think I've stayed this consistent with exercise before, ever. For someone who has claimed many times in her life that she just wasn't cut out to run, I'd say that's a pretty big accomplishment. I might not be fast, but at least I'm out there.
No matter what my time tomorrow, I'll still be proud of myself.
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