Running around

With the encouragement of my coach – Kris – I’ve taken up running. Last weekend I did my first 5K.

Well, my first 5K in a long time. I ran one once before in 2002, but then I kind of gave up after that.

Kris and I started run-walking in September. She steadily increased my running/decreased my walking until I was eventually running a full 30 minutes. Then we started running a full 5K in anticipation of me running a race – the annual Alplaus Run-Around.

The good news is I ran a time that, while not setting the world on fire, was pretty good for me. I only did a full 5K with a Kris a couple of times before the race. Both times it took me about 40 minutes. But when I ran the race I improved to 38:04.

The bad news is I came in dead last – except for Kris, but she doesn’t count because she purposely held back to take my picture. For a while I was pretty grumpy about placing last, but eventually got over it. After all, my time was good for me and it was a small race. There were only about 30 runners and most of them were die hards.

Although I’m trying to get better, I tend to complain a lot while I’m running. I don’t really enjoy the act of running itself. But I do like the way I feel afterward. So I’m not giving up. I’ll keep plugging away at it and I think I will tackle another race one of these days.