Goodbye Couch, Hello 5K!

One of the best aspects of my Couch to 5K training program was that, up until yesterday, it was all done on the easily controlled environment of a treadmill. I can totally wrap my mind around a treadmill. With this one machine I have the elements of time, speed, and incline at my fingertips. Even the Couch to 5K program itself is set up in nice, adaptable increments for my convenience. All of this was totally working for me for the last six weeks. The problem is that when you're training for a 5K, at some point you actually have to do the 5K. I decided a few weeks ago that my first 5K was going to be the Miles for Miracles Memory Walk (http://miracleformateo.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1032957). The thought of actually running outside has been dwelling in back of my mind. It's one thing to run on a conveyor belt in an air-conditioned gym with a timer and an emergency STOP button available; it's a whooooole other story to run the trail in Riverview Beach Park. Riverview Beach Park may be beautiful and historic, but its walking trail is totally unpredictable and unpaved. There are parts of the path that are sandy, parts that have uneven chunks of concrete jutting out, and then there's the large population of geese to contend with. I don't know about you, but when I see a mafia of geese milling around and obstructing my path, I have zero desire to run, at full speed, towards them. Maybe I've seen Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" too many times, but I just have these scary mental images of wings and beaks beating me into a bloody pulp before they finally kick me into the nearby pond with their webbed feet. I know that this is a completely ridiculous and unlikely scenario; however, my fears and concerns kept me running contentedly on the treadmill for six weeks.

Until I met Jensen. Jensen is a high school sophomore that Chrissy is training. I started seeing her trailing around Chrissy in the gym, but we didn't start chatting until we were both in Lucas' Intro to Spin class. When I spotted Jensen glaring at the bike seat, I couldn't help but befriend her. She told me about her training and how she was going to run a 5K in Marlton Park. As the weeks went by, I felt comfortable enough to give her little encouragements, or, as the situation would require, mild corrections (I'm a youth group leader at church, so I feel pretty comfortable doling out words of wisdom/experience to teenagers). I'd tell her honestly if I thought her form sucked on the bike or if she wasn't pushing herself hard enough. Exercise isn't something you can mess around with; if you don't take your workout or form seriously, you can really hurt yourself. To Jensen's credit, she takes my comments in stride and jokingly refers to me as Chrissy Jr. When Jensen brought up the fact that her 5K was only a week away, I knew that I would be at Marlton Park cheering her on. I don't mention this to sound smug; my gym community has been such a blessing to me, I am more than happy to be there for one of them in return.

The week before the 5K in Marlton Park, I ran for 20 minutes in a row on the treadmill. I'm not sure if the after-effects of that endorphin high were still lingering around in my system, but on the day before the 5K I decided I was going to run. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, though, because this wasn't my run; it was Jensen's and she worked her butt off for it. My plan was to run for exactly 25 minutes, as my Couch to 5K schedule required, and walk the rest. I reasoned that I would have to start running outdoors anyway because my 5K at Riverview Beach Park was only three weeks away. So the plan was to run for 25 minutes, walk the rest, and give Jensen a big bear hug at the finish line. At some point between Friday night and the morning of the race, my plan changed (except for the hugging Jensen part). As I mentioned in the prior post, I have been working on breaking through my walls. When I went to Marlton Park on Saturday, I thought that this run might be a wall that I needed to climb over.

Me, post-run, with coffee in hand

The nice thing about the Marlton Park run was that a handful of my gym buddies signed up to do it. I knew that because of my slower pace I would be running alone, but their presence was comforting nonetheless. We all lined up on the grass to begin the race and I immediately played "The Distance" by Cake on my ipod. Those first fifteen minutes of running were the most difficult for me. I wanted to keep up with the high intensity energy level of the pack when they all took off; however, I am not quite there yet and it took me a good fifteen minutes to get back into my normal running rhythm. We were to run one loop around the track, follow the marked route in the adjacent neighborhood, and then circle back for a final loop around the park track. When Jensen first told me about her 5K at the park, I thought everyone would just run the track. Chrissy then explained that the course went off of the park trail and I was mildly concerned by this fact. This was definitely beyond the realm of my personal control and far outside of my comfort zone.

By the time I finished my first loop and started running the marked route, my mind started buzzing with a million doubts over my ability to run the whole 3.1 miles. Fortunately, it was at this time that my Jersey Fitness buddies (who are all seasoned runners) were already heading back to the park for their final loop. Just as I was about to convince myself to settle for my 25 minute goal, one of them would jog past me shouting "YOU GOT THIS ANG!", "YOU CAN DO IT!" or "KEEP GOING!" So I kept going. I'm not going to say that their encouragements made the actual running portion of the race easier. My legs felt like lead, my lungs were throbbing, and I could feel every single one of my excess pounds in each step. But in my mind and in my heart, I was going to finish the race. I mean, that's all running is at the end of the day; the age-old race between the mind vs. the body. By the final loop, to be honest, I really really wanted my mind to lose this race. But every time I seriously thought about stopping, I would look up and see Jensen and Chrissy turn the corner ahead of me in the distance. This detail in and of itself is not all that significant. If all I saw was just the back of their forms running in the distance, I probably would have decided to walk the last bit as I had planned. But every time they turned a bend, Chrissy would crane her neck back to check where I was. I would give her a thumb's up, she'd wave, and I'd keep on running. I know that this detail may not seem like a big deal and it might even be just an occupational habit of Chrissy's to gauge how everyone's progressing during a workout; however,
after 9 months of attending her classes, I know that Chrissy goes above and beyond the role of the average fitness instructor. She genuinely cares about the people she works with. I may have run that 5K by myself but I was far from being alone.

Me and Johnna after the race

I didn't think I would run the whole thing. When your history with diet and exercise resembles mine, you get into the bad habit of accepting failure as the only possible outcome. But then, after what felt like forever, the finish line was in sight and it was all over.  I didn't have a meltdown like I did last week when I ran for 20 minutes in a row. I just hugged Jensen and my gym buddies and made my way back to the pavilion for coffee and water. Some time later they announced times and awards but honestly, I could have cared less. Don't get me wrong, I cheered on my gym buddies (I think they all won some kind of award) but I was still in a post-run stupor over the fact that I actually finished the race. I certainly didn't need a ribbon to tell me what I accomplished. I didn't even care about my time, really. Do you know the last time I ran 3 miles? Never. When Chrissy told me my time was 39 minutes, I didn't really dwell on what that meant. All I knew was that I ran a 5K.

I've been asked how it felt to run/finish the race. I hope this post is doing a decent job of conveying all that. Just in case it didn't, here are the 3 biggies:

1. Still in shock/doubt that I did it
2. So proud of Jensen and Kristen for doing it
3. So blessed by the group of ladies that also ran the race. They literally encouraged me from start to finish.

Also, I was kind of surprised by some of the physical side-effects of running my first 5K:

1. My nose freaking hurt after the race. Breathing in all that cold air made me feel like a coke head for all the soreness I experienced in my nasal cavity.
2. I didn't have to go to the bathroom during the race (thank God) but about 20 seconds after I got into my car, my entire system decided to go haywire. It was a rather inconvenient time for one to get caught in Woodstown's Fall Festival traffic.
3. My fat rolls decided they were not ready for a 5K. All the back fat roll friction created two rather painful rashes along the sides of my waist.
4. My thighs hate me.

I'm looking at this picture below and I still can't believe I'm in it. These girls would post pictures of their runs on Facebook and I used to think "Seriously. These people run for actual enjoyment and not because they're being chased by murderers?" And now I'm just so proud to have stood with them in this photo. I could not have asked for a better experience. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Jensen, Lidia, Ceal, Jessie, Lisa, (no idea, lol), Dana, Jen, Me, Bailey, Cooper, Chrissy, and Johnna