INK PUBLIC RELATIONS

This past weekend, I participated in my very first race. Needless to say, at my 12-minute/mile pace, there was absolutely no “racing” involved for me, but hey – we can call it one anyways.

The annual race, hosted by Gilbert’s Gazelles, is called “Run for the Water” and its purpose is to raise money for clean water for the people of Burundi, Africa. Because it is for a wonderful cause and I wanted to feel what it was like to run in a real, organized, professional race, I signed up. Almost 2000 people participated that foggy, humid morning, but on that track it felt like it was just me.

Since I started this whole running thing a couple of months ago, I have been training for this 5K. Because it is a relatively short distance, the training wasn’t very rigorous and I felt pretty prepared for that Sunday. Although I had done most of my running on a treadmill, I had comfortably run 3.1 miles before so I was confident that this race would be no different.

How wrong I was!

Running outside makes a huge difference! Not only do you have to battle the elements, but the surface terrain and “hills” too! I’ll tell you…I have driven on that stretch of Mo-Pac and Cesar Chavez a million times, but definitely saw it in a new light that morning. It was rocky, hilly and loo-ooo-oong!

However, even though it felt like it was just me out there, I was surrounded by tons of support. There were, of course, those that have been running their whole lives, but around my pace group it seemed like we were all beginners and we all motivated each other to keep on (as Beth says) “putting one foot in front of the other.” Though the air was humid and the water breaks were few, we all kept going until the finish line. It was that sense of individual accomplishment and team camaraderie that pushed us to the end, and it truly felt great.

I think the race really put the half-marathon in perspective. Here I am – sweating, panting, exhausted at only 3.1 miles and I am going to have to run THIRTEEN in February?!

Oy.

But at the end of the day, I really did feel great at the finish line and I know that if half-marathons were easy then everyone would do them. It is going to take a lot of work to get to the finish line in February, but I know that my sense of accomplishment will be that much greater, too. A couple months ago, I could barely run even one mile, so I know that I have already come pretty far.

I just have to remember to keep going, keep trying and just take it one step at a time.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 12:01 pm and is filed under Stuff We Like. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also leave a response.