5K

I've never been a runner and I've certainly never run more than a mile at a time and even then I was forced to do it in gym class. So when I started running in April, I didn't have high hopes. I had been working to lose the baby weight that I never lost after I had Felix (I know! 2 years is a long time to not do anything about it) and I needed to have a form of regular exercise that I could do on my own either at home or in the mornings before Phil left for the day. At first I decided to do workout videos from home. That worked for a few months, but then I started to feel like it wasn't challenging enough and sometimes was hard to do with Felix trying to play in my workout space...

I have a neighbor (a very good friend of mine) who started running in the fall three days a week and completed a half marathon recently. She gets up before 6am so she can run and shower before her husband leaves for work/school. I always thought she was crazy for getting up so early. I thought I could never do something like that....until I needed something else to do for exercise. So I downloaded a couch to 5k program on my phone and decided to give the 8 week program a shot.

I started getting up at 6am to run before Phil left for school. The first week was killer! Seriously. Having not run since before I got pregnant with Felix (when I was trying to do a c25k, but only got 3 weeks into it before I got pregnant) my body and muscles were not in shape. That first week has you alternate running for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds, alternating until you reach 20 minutes. Sounds easy, right? Well I struggled! I did it, but I struggled. Each week after that increases the running and walking intervals and then by the last few week, you're doing longer stretches of running and shorter stretches of walking and doing a long run on day 3 of the week. By the end you should be able to run for 30 minutes straight (assuming you run about a 10 minutes mile, then this would be close to 3.1 miles).

It took me about 12 weeks to get through the whole program. I repeated some weeks because I wasn't able to complete all 3 workouts or couldn't quite do the workout (that first 20 minute run was a doozy). I even went running while on vacation! When Phil and I went away for a few nights we went running together and when I went to Chicago with some friends from High School I got up and ran in downtown Chicago.

The best thing about it? Phil decided to do it too! We've only been able to run together a few times, but I really enjoy doing that. I kind of wish we had started doing it a long time ago, before Felix came along. So when Phil started running, we decided to sign up for an official 5k race together. We found one in Detroit on July 13th on the Detroit River Walk.

Before the race, neither one of us had run the actual 3.1 miles. I did three 30 minute runs every week, but never more than that and I never went the full 3.1 miles. I'm slow! So I was VERY nervous about the race, so nervous in fact that I didn't sleep very well the night before. My only goal for the race was to run the whole thing without stopping! On race day, we headed downtown bright and early for the 8am start time. They gave us our bibs and we waited for the race to begin.

Well, in the end, we both finished without stopping! I could not have done it if Phil were not running right there by my side. I know he could have gone much faster, but I only had one moment where I almost stopped running, but pushed through and kept going. The only thought in my head was how disappointed I would be if I didn't finish the whole thing. By the end I was exhausted, but after catching my breath I couldn't stop smiling. I never have felt a true "runner's high" but I did that day. I felt like I could do anything and I felt so proud of myself (not very humble, but I felt I deserved a little self congratulations).

To be honest, this experience has really shown me that I can do hard things; things I never would have in my wildest dreams thought I could do. Its extremely empowering to set a goal, work towards that goal, and finally achieve that goal. I've also learned the power of physical exercise in my life. I have more energy with Felix when I'm consistently working out, I sleep better at night and I tend to be a bit happier. So since the race, I've kept up running 3 days a week for anywhere from 25-30 minutes. I hope this becomes a lifelong habit! I also hope there are more 5k races in my future.

That's Canada!

The start/finish line