It baffles me that people pay good money to wake up early on a Saturday morning and suffer through a 3.1 mile run. But then again, we did just that this past weekend.
Jason took a 5K training class at Cree for the past month which led up to the Run for our Heroes race in downtown Raleigh. And since I have been running on a treadmill regularly since mid-January, I decided to run the race with him.
Now in the world of running, I compare running on a treadmill to prancing in a blissful utopia. The pace is kept for you, a personal tv is connected to your machine and there's plenty of water and a bathroom nearby. Then there's running outside...that's more like running in the real world of hard knocks. There are hills, other people in your way, hills, pace-what pace?, hills and mile markers to remind you that even though you feel like your heart may stop-you're still a long way from the finish line.
This being said, I had two goals for my race. #1-Don't walk, keep running at all costs. #2-Finish in under 35 minutes. Miraculously I accomplished both. While my run did turn into a slow jog at times, I never walked. It helped to have Jillian Michaels in your head saying, 'I have 400 lb people that can do this-so can you! Don't stop unless you die.' Always an encouragement Jillian! And I finished just under 33 minutes which is great considering I've been averaging 11 1/2 minute miles on the treadmill.
Jason finished in 29 1/2 minutes! He ran with me for maybe .2 miles until declaring, 'Is this as fast as you can go?' and then he took off. I can't blame him though, his legs are longer! I thought his time was very impressive considering he's only been running for a few weeks.
So will we ever put ourselves through such torture again on a Saturday morning? If you had asked me right after the event while my pulse was still racing and I was trying to keep my heart from stopping, I would have said no. But now after reflecting on the rush of such a great accomplishment my answer is maybe, only if it's at the beach thus making the course completely flat!
Until then...'Mr. Treadmill I'll see you tomorrow!'
3 comments:
loved this post! Keep training so we can run the 5k for making strides in October! I wont be 65 weeks prego with twins this year. :)
so proud of you both!!!!!!!!
Love it! Proud that you did it!! but I am with you...Give me a treadmill any day over running on land!! Before AK I "ran" (ahem, jogged at slow but steady pace) on the treadmill in the air conditioning while watching Friend; that is what I call exercise!
Nice work!
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