My First 5k

I had trouble sleeping last night. I lay awake, listening to the sounds of the rain and thunder, wondering whether I would be running in the rain in just a few hours. When I did sleep, I had running anxiety dreams. In one, I was running laps in my old grade school gym. I was my adult self, running with all my former fifth grade classmates, who were without exception faster than me, and laughing at me. Horrible!

But when my alarm went off at 5:45 a.m., the sounds of the rain had stopped. I got up, quickly dressed, packed up my backpack, and jumped on my bike. Yep, I biked to my 5k! Because we only have one car, and because I really wanted Jeff, Charlotte and Sam to be able to meet me at the finish line, I needed to find another way to get to the race. So, biking it was. And it was a rather pleasant bike ride. It was still dark, but the roads were quiet and the trip went smoothly.

When I got to South Park, I felt limber and warm, which was good, as I had about an hour to burn before my race started, and it was cold outside. I pinned my number on, strapped my timer to my shoe, and walked around the park and up and down Mass St. until it was time for the half-marathon to begin.

After the national anthem was sung (a surprisingly emotional moment), the runners took their marks and at the sound of the starting gun took off while the spectators and 5k/10kers on the sidelines cheered. I felt very lumpy and unprofessional next to the half-marathoners. They were all sleekly outfitted and spindly, like real distance runners. One woman was wearing what looked like a runner's bikini. That's dedication.

Ten minutes later, I was milling about with the mass of fellow 5k and 10k runners waiting for my race to begin. I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw my friend Alicia, another PhD student here at KU, who was also running. I was really glad she picked me out of the crowd. I knew having a person I knew to run with would help me perform better. We got caught up talking with each other and were both caught off guard when the starting gun suddenly went off. "Oh!" we exclaimed, laughing. And so the run began.

I'm lucky Alicia keeps a similar pace to me (a.k.a. slow...she's a beginner, too). She was running with another friend of hers and a couple of times I walked while they kept running, but each time I caught up again. I started toward the back of the pack and stayed there, although toward the end I passed a few people. I felt like I really performed slow and steady, keeping some energy in reserves for the last mile, when I really needed it.

The route was nice. Some hills, but Lawrence has bigger ones that would have been more painful. This wasn't too bad. We ran through some nice neighborhoods, and some people stood at the end of their driveways cheering us on, which was lovely. The run through campus was especially fun.

I think I knew, and my body felt, when I hit the point that was farther than I had run before. I felt a different kind of tired, but my feet just kept moving. I had no idea at that point how long I'd been running, but I was just glad I was still going and that I didn't feel as terrible as I thought I would.

The best part was crossing the bridge over Iowa St. I could see the Lied Center in the distance, and knew the finishing line was close. The sidewalk wrapping down through the parking lot up to the finish line seemed cruely long, but I quickly became distracted as I looked around for Jeff and the kids. As I approached the finish line, I spotted them off to my left. I started waving and grinning like a loon. Jeff pulled out the camera and snapped this:

One of the ugliest pictures of me ever, but I'm proud of it. Seconds later, I crossed the finish line. They called out my name (butchering the last name, naturally) and congratulating me. I somehow missed my actual time, but I know it was 38 minutes and some change. And I was done! edited to add: I found the official results online, here. Looks like my time was 38.24.4; 14th place in my age/gender bracket, 211th overall. Sweet!

We walked around a little bit, enjoying some of the free food and drinks for the atheletes and their families, before deciding it was just too cold for the kids.

All day I've been glowing. I can't believe I really did this! I'm so, so proud of myself for sticking with it despite the past few weeks, and for making it through today. And I'm really glad I did this all when Sam was still so young. I hope it's set a precedent for me and exercising...I want to make this a way of life.

So, what does that mean? It means I'm looking for another 5k to sign up for!

I MADE IT!

I don't know my official time (I think it was 38 minutes something) but I do know that I ran almost the entire way, and I felt pretty good, and I DID IT! WOO!

11 Hours...

Tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 7:45 a.m. I will begin running my first 5k.

Tonight I'm going to eat a vat of pasta in the hopes it will boost my energy to the point that I don't notice the muscle fatigue that's been plaguing me the past couple of weeks.

Pasta + adrenaline will surely = success, right?

To say I'm nervous would be an understatement. When I went to pick up my packet today, I suddenly realized: uh-oh. This is for real. And I'm not ready, really, really not ready.

But surely I'm not the first person in the world to run a 5k less than prepared, right? Surely I won't make a complete fool of myself?

Jeff keeps using humor to lighten the situation. Today I was looking up the map for the run, and he said, "Don't worry, honey! I'm sure you won't be so far behind the rest of the runners that you'd get lost!" Ha ha! HILARIOUS!

Then I was joking about how we'd better stick around for the medal ceremony and he said "Do they give out medals to the top 95%? Because I'm confident you'll be in the top 95%. Of women. Ages 25-90."

Oh, that jokester.

I'll write again tomorrow, of course, post-race. Now, for that pasta...

Five Days

As in, five days left until my first 5k.

I'm glad I waited until today to post, because this morning's run was much better than last week's runs. Vastly better. Last week, while I was still South Beaching, I could barely slog through a mile. And when I was done I felt terrible. Weak, shaky. Just awful.

Today, after a weekend of relatively back-to-normal eating (I'm still trying to limit sweets and processed carbs), I was able to run/walk the entire 2.5 mile distance, with more running than walking. I think I probably ran almost 2 miles. And I felt pretty good...just normal post-running fatigue. I'll go out again Thursday and try to improve on my distance. And then maybe a shorter run Saturday just to prime the pump before Sunday morning...very early Sunday morning, I might add.

Bleaaaaargh.

Well, that didn't go well.

Friday morning I woke up feeling really weird. Woozy, spacy, dizzy, out of it. I needed to run that day. My typical routine is to down a cup of tea and head out a half-hour later. Nothing else, really...my late-night snacking typically gave me enough fuel to run on. But it was obvious that wasn't going to work this time. I whipped up some scrambled eggs with veggies and grody low-fat cheese like a good South Beach dieter, waited a couple of hours, and then went to the rec center to run on the track. I needed to do 2.5 miles and found it easier to measure the length on the track.

Well, as soon as I started running I knew it wasn't going to go well. I felt like I was running underwater, like I had weights around my ankles. And my heart-rate was crazy. I could feel my heart pounding just when I was doing my warm-up walk. I think all in all I managed to run a mile total, with lots of walking interspersed.

I got home and told Jeff what happened and weighed my options. Obviously I needed a bit more fuel earlier in the days I was going to run. Did I need actual carbs? Should I break the diet on run mornings, and have a piece of toast with peanut butter or something?

In the back of my mind, I was worried this wasn't related to the diet, although it seems to timely not to be. I was secretly concerned it was my thyroid acting up again, because the symptoms were quite similar. Plus, I've been having some of the other symptoms lately: aching joints, difficultly falling/staying asleep particulary.

I decided to give it another try. Saturday morning I was more proactive. When I was up at 5 a.m. feeding Sam, I had a snack before going back to bed. I felt a little better when woke up. I ate breakfast, sticking to the diet but not holding back on portion, and waited a few hours. This time I mapped out a route in the neighborhood.

Same story as before. Same sensation, and about the same results. I ran almost a mile before giving up and walking. I kept trying to run again but just couldn't.

I have a 5k scheduled in two weeks. Right now I can barely manage a mile. What to do?

I am sticking with South Beach (the first phase) through this Friday. This isn't the full two weeks suggested by the program, but I'm pleased enough with the results I've seen so far (my belly is noticeably diminished) to cut it a bit short. During that time period, I'll keep trying to run, and I'll run as much as I can. Hopefully after Friday, when I add some carbs back into my diet, I'll see a return of some energy too. If not...well, perhaps the pressure of the crowd at the race will motivate me past my leaden feet?

Week 7, and an eating update

I'm in the middle of week seven of C25K, so I'll reserve my judgment until I'm done. But I can say without hesitation that this is the most challenging week, not only so far, but overall. The jump from running increased time/length over the course of the week to running long runs every time was a bit of a shock. But, again, I'll write more about this later.

I wanted to post that I've started the South Beach diet this week. Let me say off the bat that I am not a diet fan. My opinion is that if people eat real foods in moderate amounts they shouldn't need to follow trendy diets or join a program or anything. However, I have come to realize that many people, myself included, need to break out of some bad habits in order to get to the point where they can eat real foods in moderate amounts.

I'm an emotional eater. I want to celebrate, mourn, and just chill out with food. Since Sam was born I've gotten into the terrible habit of snacking at night after the kids go to bed. I might have been so busy during the day that I missed meals and was genuinely hungry, but the amount of calories I'd wolf down after dark was way, way more than I needed. And usually it was the wrong kind of food.

I looked into a couple of different diets but I have heard about South Beach from several people (including my own parents who had great success on it a few years back. In addition, it seems to be Nina Planck-approved, which means it passes my hippie-meter test. Planck is the author of Real Food, which has become my sort of food-bible in recent years. Anyway, South Beach for the most part doesn't require you to eat a lot of weird, artificial things, something I approve of.

So I started South Beach for two reasons: to break my really bad snacking habit, and to thwart my recent weight gain. Yes, that's right. Weight GAIN. I'm probably the only person in the world who can be nursing full-time AND training for a 5k and therefore exercising regularly and be GAINING WEIGHT. Boo. I know my baby is only three months old, and I shouldn't be expecting to be back in pre-baby shape or anything, but certainly I could be expecting to be maintaining or even losing a bit of weight, right?

I'll be writing about South Beach over here and at Tig Eats in the next few weeks.