5K

For those of you that don't know, I am an avid exerciser. Over the last 2 1/2 years I have exercised between 3 and 6 times a week. The only weeks I did less than that were when I had the swine flu, the week Ashlyn was born and one week in December. I have been lucky to be able to attend Zumba and kickboxing classes at a church nearby and on the other days I jog or use my elliptical. Jogging hasn't ever been on the top of my list as far as "fun" is concerned, but it helps me maintain my weight the best and provides me with a challenge. Recently, Josh set a goal of jogging a 5K for a work fitness program. I typically jog 3 to 4 miles each time I jog and never considered a 5K to be much of a challenge but decided it would be fun to participate in an official race so I signed up too. I decided to push myself by jogging it faster. I was jogging 3 miles in about 42 minutes (according to my treadmill, which we think is off) and worked my way down to about 33 minutes. I would jog an hour at a time so I was typically putting in 5 1/4 miles each jog. As the race neared, I was a little nervous because I rarely jog outside. The 5K we would be jogging was at Sugar House Park and I knew the inclines would have an affect on my running as well as the temperature. My goal was to complete the race somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes. Well, I did. I ran it in 28 minutes 33 seconds and came in 4th place in my age group. I was only 8 seconds shy of coming in 3rd place and would have gotten a prize. Next time I just need to sprint that last little bit. I'm really glad Josh ran with me otherwise I don't know that I would have done it. I've wanted to do a half marathon for quite some time but am glad that I started out with the 5K. Now I even think I had better do a 10K before the half marathon just for the added experience. What fun.