My First 5K Race

When my friend Laura suggested a couple of months ago that we enter the Oktoberfest 5K race, I didn't take the idea seriously. Sure, I used to run a bit for exercise, but that was many, many years ago and very, very slowly. Since then, I'd run occasionally on the treadmill, but doing even a relatively short 5K race was for serious athletes, not a mouse potato like myself. Being the enthusiastic optimist that she is, Laura convinced me to try the Couch-to-5K plan from www.coolrunning.com. So I ran three days a week for eight weeks, and today I completed my very first 5K race.

At the onset, I had a realistic goal of 35 minutes and a seemingly not-so-realistic goal of 30 minutes. I was very pleased when, near the end of my training, I managed to do 5K in 33 minutes. Today, I surprised myself by finishing in 30:11. It helped that most of the race was downhill. Also, there's nothing like seeing a 10-year-old kid or a 70-year-old senior sprinting past to give that extra bit of motivation. I finished 25th out of 54 women in the 40-44 age group, and 509th out of 840 racers. So I'm not going to break any records ... but it's nice to know that, at age 41, I can still try something new that I've never done before!