B.A.A. 5K

This past weekend, I knocked the first item listed on my 30 by 30 List  - running a 5K.  Now, for many people, running a 5K is no big deal.  But for me, I have always been pretty intimidated about running.  While I have plenty of friends who are runners and great athletes, I'm just not one of them.  But once I put this on my 30 by 30 List, I knew I had to keep myself accountable and just do it. 

My friend Kim is a phenomenal athlete.  She has done countless road races (including the Boston Marathon, which she finished again yesterday) and is a two-time Ironman athlete.  She is no joke.  When I told her that I was thinking of doing a 5K, she happily researched some fun (and flat) races for me, including the B.A.A. 5K held the day before the Boston Marathon. 

So after a few months of running on the treadmill and outdoors whenever the weather cooperated, I got myself out the door on Sunday morning to head to the race.  It was drizzling out but otherwise the weather wasn't too bad.

My goal was to run the 5K under thirty minutes.  I have been running between nine to ten minute miles on a regular basis so I knew this was feasible.  Plus, I ran the course once on my own at a little over thirty minutes with traffic and pedestrian stops.

I was on track after the first two miles but I definitely slowed down a bit at the last mile and my finish time was 32:18 minutes.  I wish I could say I was disappointed but you can tell from this sweaty smile that I was just proud to run the whole thing and just finish.

I guess this just means that I'm going to have to do some more 5Ks until I can get to my goal time?  Perhaps there is a runner in me just yet!

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments, texts, emails and tweets.  I was totally floored by how supportive people were for my first 5K!