Have you ever thought about how you were going to die? Will it be peacefully in your sleep or doing some heroic act? I always thought I would grow old and die peacefully being remembered by my family and friends but now all of that has changed. December 17th will be the day I die running my first 5K.
Obviously I am being super over dramatic and I actually will not die during the 5K. Will I be tired? Yes. Will I be sore? Yes. Will I be running and telling my boyfriend who is patiently running with me, promising not to leave me alone, that I am die? Yes better believe I will be. So why run the 5K, why put myself through it? To say I did it. I never was much of a runner when I was younger. I even tricked myself into thinking I could run track in middle school and did the 100 and 200 sprints. While the entire team was getting better over the season and beating their previous times, I was the only one on the team to be getting worse as the season went on. While this wasn’t something I was proud of at the time I can now look at it that at least I was consistent. Even though my 8th grade year they had try-outs and I was excluded as the coaches already had me on the team, I think they were all secretly happy that I chose to quit the team since I would be moving halfway through the season and I wanted someone else to have my place who truly wanted it.
Fast forward to now and I still hate running. I lead an active life I feel; I own a horse and ride about 5 days a week, walk whenever possible, and enjoy being outside and being on hikes. Do I run though? Nope. The whole 5K thing started as a joke of sorts; I only wanted to do a Christmas one because…Christmas. Before I said anything I knew my boyfriend wouldn’t be able to do it because he had EMT things to do that weekend. So there I was in his truck making a joke about how I really wanted to do the Santa 5K but couldn’t because he wouldn’t be around and I was so sad about it. But then he was excited to do one, and then I got a false sense of confidence that yea I could do this. So that Monday I went to work, looked up 5Ks, and sent him one for us to do. Did we sign up right away? No. Instead we waited until I was half asleep and didn’t remember the next morning that it had been done. So now I had the 5K facing me on the 17th…we started training on the 4th. After online research I realized this was probably too late so then obviously my only thought was I was going to die.
Out first run was bad…like me heavy breathing I need to walk every two seconds bad. My poor boyfriend stayed as patient as ever encouraging me along the way and never showing that he was annoyed. I decided to go to my parents’ house after that for my next three runs of the week and use the treadmill before heading back outside and running with my boyfriend. When we did go back out I not only impressed myself, but I think I impressed him also; I was able to run longer and further before having to take walk breaks. This probably could be because I had a week of running under my belt already, but I think it’s more because my attitude was different and I wasn’t focusing on dying. It probably also helped that I was telling myself that once I finish the 5K I could eat and drink whatever I wanted (Champagne and cookies here I come).
I still may die on the 17th, as in I won’t die but I’ll tell everyone I will because I am over dramatic, but I will be pushing myself to do something that I never thought I would be able to do.
Have you run a 5K before? Leave a comment below to let me know your experience!
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