This weekend I ran my very first race ever. It was a 5K that was held in conjunction with the Salt Lake marathon. I originally decided to do this because my sister was doing it with her family. I thought it'd be fun to go run the race with my sister. (I use the term run loosely- we actually planned on walking the whole thing with her two youngest kids- 7 and 11 years old.)
The race ended up being MUCH different than I planned. Instead of walking with my sister, I ran it with her 11 year old daughter. Kierstin didn't want to walk- she wanted to run. So I ran with Kierstin and Heidi walked with Jaydin. Kierstin and I made pretty good time, too. In the end, we made the whole thing in less than 45 minutes. We did walk more than half of it, but we ran/sprinted at least 1 mile of it, and maybe closer to a 1 and 1/2 miles of it. I was so excited for the accomplishment of having my first race be a success. Not only did I finish it, but I actually did a better time than I'd done in training.
I learned many lessons from this experience. I'll outline only the ones I felt were most important. First and foremost, I did this because of my sister. Heidi inviting me to run this with her really changed my life for the better. I initially decided to train for it because I didn't want my 7 year old nephew to be running circles around me while the medical personnel had to carry me away... I knew we were going to walk. But as I trained for this, I discovered an amazing thing. I ENJOYED it. (I know- creepy.. :D) I never in my life thought I'd enjoy running. And yes, I haven't run tons. I mostly walk fast so far. But I'm building endurance and speed as I continue training. I've wanted to lose weight for a couple years. Because my sister invited me to run with her, not only did I find a new hobby, I have started losing a little weight. Lesson? Surround yourself with good people who inspire you to be better. We don't have time in life for those who try to get us to do things that aren't good for us or that want us to compromise our standards and integrity.
As my sister and her kids started walking across the starting line with me, we were doing our best to walk fast, but we weren't making any serious effort to run. Then Kierstin wanted to run, so I ran with her. Kierstin and I would run for as long as we could, and then we'd walk for a while. When we'd rested a bit, we'd run as long as we could. Because so many other pairs were doing the same thing, we had several pairs of runners that we kept leap-frogging. They'd run past us, then we'd run past them. One of these pairs appeared to be a husband-wife team. Apparently the husband was a better runner than the wife, because I over heard some of his comments as we past them. She was saying that she wanted to but her body just wouldn't. I assume she meant run rather than walk, but I can only assume. His comment back really influenced my attitude the rest of the race. I can't remember his exact words. But he basically told her she could do it because she could have her mind overpower her body. From they way they past us several times, I think it's safe to assume that he was right. Another time when we passed this couple, I heard him telling her, "I'm not leaving you- we are running this TOGETHER." This taught me a very important lesson. Mind really can overpower body. I'm not saying you can tell yourself you aren't sick and just not be sick magically. But we can overcome cravings, appetites, habits, etc. And to repeat what I said above, surrounding ourselves with people who will be a support system and lift us up is invaluable with this.
The last thing I learned was simply that hard work really does pay off. I decided to train for this race. Yes, I went as fast as I was capable of, and it wasn't the greatest time in reference to all the other runners I was up against. But it was the best I could possibly do, and it really made me feel good about myself to do it. In fact, at the end, I had extra energy. (I couldn't have kept running, but because I trained and worked and prepared, I wasn't dead at the end, either.)
I had such a good experience that I'm hoping to do more races this year. :)
Work hard and prepare. It pays off!
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