First 5 km

Hello and happy Monday! Who am I kidding, Mondays equal:

My weekend was fabulous! The highlight of which was my very first 5 km race! It was put on by the local police detachment and all donations went to support the Special Olympics.  Brian and I did our fundraising together and raised $155 for the cause. Not the best but better than our goal which was $100.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to have some breakfast before the race. We were a bit surprised at how disorganized the event was and we planned to arrive really early Saturday morning to get all the information that we needed as well as our bibs for the race. We knew where the race was and what time but that was the extent of the information given after registering. I had a filling breakfast of two scrambled eggs and a piece of whole wheat toast and was ready to go!

We arrived 45 minutes early for the race and received our bibs, t-shirt, swag bag, and time tracker (I am not sure what they are officially called but you strap it around your ankle and it monitors when you cross the start line all the way to the finish line). The t-shirts were actually super nice and were a lightweight, breathable material.

(Brian had gotten into a fight with a piece of PVC pipe at work last week so that is why his face is all cut up. I also look like I am 12 without makeup on…)

I actually knew a couple people in the race with us, one person that I deal with quite a bit at work and some others that I know on twitter but have not officially met before. Kinda creepy, but I think a lot of people have “friends” like that now-a-days…right?

Eventually the police siren wailed letting us know that the race had begun. It is a pretty weird feeling having waves of people running past you, but I knew that if I tried to keep up with anyone else’s pace, I would fizzle out. So I kept my own steady pace that I was comfortable at and slowly got super humbled by the amount of people passing me. Brian is a fast runner, but he wanted to stay with me so that we could cross the finish line together (cute right?) but there were a few times where he forgot I was slower than him and had to stop to wait for me to catch up. The race started off along a busy main road in our city but eventually dipped into the coulees (these are landforms that were created from erosion and are all over Southern Alberta.They are kind of shaped like inverted mountains.) for the 5 km and 10 km racers. The half marathon-ers (?) continued on a different route. The first 1.5 mile went really fast because of the adrenaline from the race and the steep downhill that hurt the knees but was kind of fun (my abs hurt the next day though! Downside of using a treadmill for your runs I guess). I felt really strong the whole race. My breathing was steady and overall I felt great.

The hard part came in the last 1 km. I knew the end was close but because the route twisted and turned I couldn’t see the finish line and I think this weighed on me mentally. This was the first and only time I stopped during the race and I know it was because I kept waiting to see the finish line and it just wasn’t there yet. There were quite a few people around us at this time, all girls who had the same pace as me. But for a few of them I could see that they were really struggling and their breathing was very ragged, almost wheezing at times. Brian and I didn’t use music because we both know it would only take us about 30 minutes and we could talk for most of it. But the downfall of this was the wheezing I could hear for the last half of the race.

Finally I could hear the microphone from the finish line announcing the racers as the crossed and we sprinted the last 400 meters to the finish for a time of 32:14. We crossed at the exact same time and the announcer butchered my name as well as our last name as we crossed but we didn’t care. We high-fived and congratulated each other and got our spiffy medals for competing.

Overall it was a really cool experience and something new for both of us to do together.  We decided that next time we would sign up for the 10 km but I was happy that we started with a 5 km for our first race though just to get our feet wet so we know what to expect.

Did you have a positive first race experience? 

What activities do you and your partner like to do together to get some quality time in?