Someone ran a 5K yesterday!
That's right, yours truly. I ran my first 5K race yesterday at the Mercedes-Benz Corporate run. This was my first time participating in this type of event and it was so much fun, I plan on doing more of these in the future (Disney, here I come!). I'd been running at the gym and at home for a little over a month now, so I was able to run the whole thing without stopping, well except for that one time, but I'll tell you about that little fiasco now.
Unfortunately our "company" didn't' have a tent for us to hang out and leave our stuff in, so we had to only take with us what we could run with. With this in mind, I bought an arm band for my iphone and car key and ID. Wouldn't you know it, the day of the race, I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to use my old ipod arm band (which does not accommodate my iphone very well and is a little wobbly and has no pockets for keys and IDs and such). I had also purchased a nike+ sensor for my ipod so that I could check my pace, distance, etc. This is a wonderful little gadget that helps me stay on pace (thanks for the suggestion R!).
So I lined up with the thousands of people ready to start my run. They were starting to count down so I turned my ipod on and guess what? The screen wouldn't turn on. It didn't work. Fabulous. Fortunately, the music came on, but since the screen didn't work, I had to listen to whatever song the ipod wanted me to hear (the same 3 songs over and over again) and forget about turning on the nike+ sensor. It looks like I would have to wing it. Fortunately, I have a Runkeeper app on my iphone, so I turned that on instead so it could track my run. That one isn't as user friendly though and doesn't give you updates at the touch of a button.
The cannon went off and the people began. I had managed to squirm my way to the front half of the group so it was only a minute before I was able to get running. The weather was fabulous and it helped compensate over how mad I was at my ipod. I was basically running with no way of monitoring my progress (which I totally hate). As soon as I stared running, my arm band was jiggling and bopping all over the place. I thought to myself, oh no, this won't do. I tried to put the phone towards the underside of my arm to hold it against my body. So now, I was running with no speed sensor, repetitive music, a wobbly arm band and the use of only one arm. Can it get any worse? Actually, yes it can (I should have known better than to ask that). I dropped my car key! Fortunately, I felt it and heard it fall. I immediately stopped and looked for it to pick it up (I found it THANK GOD). Note to self: when running in a crowd of 20,000, it's not a good idea to stop all of a sudden...I'm just saying.
After the key fiasco (thank God it didn't fall when I was going over the bridge otherwise, my key would be in the Miami River at this point because the street has holes in it) I took my arm band off and held it in my hand along with my key. My nonfunctioning ipod was in my other hand. I was sure that I had totally lost my pace at this point. There is no way I'm beating my personal best (34+ minutes) with all this crap going on. I soldiered on and kept running as best I could. I didn't stop for water because it was too much of a hassle, plus it's not like I had any hands to hold it with.
After going over the 2nd bridge I didn't see how I could continue any longer. Running over bridges was not part of my training regimen, so that was pretty tough but I refused to walk at any point. I kept on and I saw the final turns ahead. I mustered the last bit of energy to run just a little faster. I was mad because an 8 year old was totally kicking my ass just ahead of me. As I turned the last corner I noticed the clock in the distance said 31 something...Oh my god, could it be? Wow, I'm actually running faster than I thought. I put in a final sprint and made it past the finish line at 32:09, estatic that I had beat my personal best despite all the issues with my equipment.
My happiness was short lived though, when I found out that the course had been shortened to 2.89 miles (or something like that), but that's OK, because I probably would have beat my time anyway. What an awesome experience, I can't wait to do it again.
Go Me.
Oh, and my ipod? It started working about a minute after I was done running. Nice.
Unfortunately our "company" didn't' have a tent for us to hang out and leave our stuff in, so we had to only take with us what we could run with. With this in mind, I bought an arm band for my iphone and car key and ID. Wouldn't you know it, the day of the race, I couldn't find it anywhere. I had to use my old ipod arm band (which does not accommodate my iphone very well and is a little wobbly and has no pockets for keys and IDs and such). I had also purchased a nike+ sensor for my ipod so that I could check my pace, distance, etc. This is a wonderful little gadget that helps me stay on pace (thanks for the suggestion R!).
So I lined up with the thousands of people ready to start my run. They were starting to count down so I turned my ipod on and guess what? The screen wouldn't turn on. It didn't work. Fabulous. Fortunately, the music came on, but since the screen didn't work, I had to listen to whatever song the ipod wanted me to hear (the same 3 songs over and over again) and forget about turning on the nike+ sensor. It looks like I would have to wing it. Fortunately, I have a Runkeeper app on my iphone, so I turned that on instead so it could track my run. That one isn't as user friendly though and doesn't give you updates at the touch of a button.
The cannon went off and the people began. I had managed to squirm my way to the front half of the group so it was only a minute before I was able to get running. The weather was fabulous and it helped compensate over how mad I was at my ipod. I was basically running with no way of monitoring my progress (which I totally hate). As soon as I stared running, my arm band was jiggling and bopping all over the place. I thought to myself, oh no, this won't do. I tried to put the phone towards the underside of my arm to hold it against my body. So now, I was running with no speed sensor, repetitive music, a wobbly arm band and the use of only one arm. Can it get any worse? Actually, yes it can (I should have known better than to ask that). I dropped my car key! Fortunately, I felt it and heard it fall. I immediately stopped and looked for it to pick it up (I found it THANK GOD). Note to self: when running in a crowd of 20,000, it's not a good idea to stop all of a sudden...I'm just saying.
After the key fiasco (thank God it didn't fall when I was going over the bridge otherwise, my key would be in the Miami River at this point because the street has holes in it) I took my arm band off and held it in my hand along with my key. My nonfunctioning ipod was in my other hand. I was sure that I had totally lost my pace at this point. There is no way I'm beating my personal best (34+ minutes) with all this crap going on. I soldiered on and kept running as best I could. I didn't stop for water because it was too much of a hassle, plus it's not like I had any hands to hold it with.
After going over the 2nd bridge I didn't see how I could continue any longer. Running over bridges was not part of my training regimen, so that was pretty tough but I refused to walk at any point. I kept on and I saw the final turns ahead. I mustered the last bit of energy to run just a little faster. I was mad because an 8 year old was totally kicking my ass just ahead of me. As I turned the last corner I noticed the clock in the distance said 31 something...Oh my god, could it be? Wow, I'm actually running faster than I thought. I put in a final sprint and made it past the finish line at 32:09, estatic that I had beat my personal best despite all the issues with my equipment.
My happiness was short lived though, when I found out that the course had been shortened to 2.89 miles (or something like that), but that's OK, because I probably would have beat my time anyway. What an awesome experience, I can't wait to do it again.
Go Me.
Oh, and my ipod? It started working about a minute after I was done running. Nice.
posted by Claudia at 11:07 AM
1 Comments:
Fantastic! I'm so impressed!
And I'm not surprised you're hooked — running races is so much fun!
You did great, too, not letting your iPod disaster throw you off. Yay, runner!
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