First 5K

I've never been very athletic. In High School I didn't have any interest in playing sports or being on a team. I just about died when we had to run the mile for gym class, I think it took me about 15 minutes to complete it since I gave in to walking half way through. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I started regretting that decision. I wanted to be a part of something like that, I wanted to be athletic and test my abilities. I thought it was too late for me.

When I was a junior in college I met some friends through work that ran 5ks. My employer was sponsoring a team to run in the local Jingle Bell Run in December. Even though I detest the cold and rolled my eyes at people that ran outside in winter I gave in to the peer pressure and decided to sign myself and boyfriend up for the race. Having had no prior running experience we decide we needed to at least run one mile if we were going to try to run 3.1. We started off by running around the block. I was huffing and puffing towards the end of the run, my lungs ached and I was so cold. After doing this a couple times a week I began to actually feel comfortable running around the block without stopping to walk. Eventually we were able to run 2 miles straight at a very slow pace but still jogging nonetheless. My boyfriend was a great motivator for me, he was in the same boat I was. He was never athletic at all and was your stereotypical computer geek. He is a very determined person so he helped me keep going when all I wanted to do was go home and eat all the calories I had just burnt off.
In mid December race day arrived. We had a core group of about 8 people. Half of which had done numerous 5ks and 10ks. My boyfriend, Josh, and I were excited and nervous at the same time. We were 5k virgins and it definitely showed. We arrived for the race in sweatpants, heavy sweatshirts, and thick mittens. The course was through Vilas park and zoo which is a great course. It was very cold and we had a ton of snow hat year, most of which hadn't been cleared of the walking paths. I don't remember much about this first race, just that I finished and that it was a wonderful feeling of accomplishment. Especially for a somewhat overweight and somewhat lazy person like me.