The 5k

In 2010 I started training for a 5k that is held in Fredericksburg every Thanksgiving called the Turkey Trot 5k. I ran my first timed race since I ran track in middle school. I always enjoyed running but as I got older and found less time I stopped running and once you stop it becomes harder to start back up. Then you get to a point where you can’t run most of the time and you are walking most of the work out. Well in July of 2010 I joined the gym with my friend and co-worker Casey and to keep myself motivated I decided to run the 5k over Thanksgiving.

The last time I seriously ran prior to 2010 was in 2005 when I was training with an ARMY recruiter to get into shape so I could join the ARMY. By the time I was finished I was running 1.5 of the 3 miles we did every morning and afternoon. Running with someone is easier because they constantly motivate you to keep running. Running by yourself is a lot tougher mentally because you need to keep on yourself to keep going. In my 5k I ran the first half mile and caught my breath enough to start running again. The whole race I would run 100-200 yards and walk 200 or so more yards. My average mile times are nothing to write home about but for someone who was only on an elliptical 3 times a week for 4 months I felt good about my times. My first mile was 13.53. I felt great about it, I was shooting for 12 minutes but the first hill was a little tougher than I imagined. There is also the aspect of getting through the crowd as your run. I probably exerted a lot more energy then I needed to trying to run around people. Next time I may start at a slower pace and pick it up later once the pack has spread out. In case you were wondering how many people I’m talking about, over 5,000 people ran this race.

As I stated earlier I ran track in middle school. In 1995/1996 I was a lot slimmer than I am now. I also ran sprints. I ran the 100 and 200. I also did the long jump. In middle school I was already 6 feet tall so I could step further than most kids could jump. However my long jump was nothing to brag about. Halfway through the season Coach Woody pulled me from the event. I was ok with that. In practice Coach Woody also had me run the 100 and 200 Hurdles. The hurdles in middle school track were much shorter than the hurdles in high school. Again this is where my height came in to play I could do the hurdles without really messing up my stride whereas shorter runners had to jump. There was one kid who literally hit every hurdle but he planned it that way. He was fast too. Our track team met the week before the County track meet. The best I did that year was finish 4th in the 200. I was proud of that, I didn’t run track because I thought I was the fastest kid in school, I ran to stay in shape for soccer season. The problem being there was not soccer in middle school at the time. At the team meeting Coach Woody announced that our top two hurdlers were injured and wouldn’t be able to run so he asked me to fill in for one of them. This was awesome because I was going to get a chance to compete at the county track meet. I ran the 100 and 200 hurdles in the meet. I didn’t place. I was close in the 100. The 200 was much harder than I expected. The reason being is hurdling while going through a turn is a lot harder than it looks. It was still a lot of fun and is an experience I’ll never forget. If I can find a copy of my old track photo I will post it here later.

So back to the 5k, I think my second mile was the toughest mentally. Trying to keep motivated and knowing that you are not halfway through the race was hard. Plus almost the whole mile was an incline, not a high grade but high enough. It was one of those roads that you think is perfectly flat but as you continue you realize you have been going uphill for most of the mile. Thankfully that last part of the mile was downhill. I ran the second mile in 14.27, slowing down a little bit but still on pace for my goal of 45 minutes.

The 3rd mile was tough but probably the easiest. I set a goal before the race that I wanted to run the race under 45 minutes. So far I have been on pace for that goal. The timing is tricky though because of the 0.1 miles so I needed to run each mile under 15 minutes to make sure I had a chance. I was monitoring my time on my watch so I knew where I was time wise but had no clue where I was on the course. I just kept running thinking I was getting close but the course just kept going. By the time I finished the third mile I was spent. My time on the last mile was 15.08 so I was still in contention to meet my goal of 45 minutes. The problem being I had to run the last tenth of a mile in a minute which may not seem difficult but there were a lot points where I just wanted to walk it home to the finish line in that last stretch. The cool thing was all the people standing on the streets cheering the runners on. It gives you a rush of adrenaline. I had no clue who some of these people were and for the most part the race was over the real runners finished 30 minutes earlier. But there were two instances where men were in the street encouraging everyone and telling us to keep going because we were almost there so I just took off and ran has hard as I could the last stretch and finished the race in 44.29 with half a minute to spare.

My friend Ryan was waiting at the finish line, we planned on meeting before hand but never found each other. Which is surprising because he is 6 foot 9 inches tall. But he was there to cheer me on those last few steps. The feeling after the race was both draining physically but awesome at the same time. I’m really glad I decided to run the race and plan on running more in the future. The reason I got the idea for this story was Ryan asked me if I want to run a 10k with him in May. I’m not sure if I’m ready for a 10k but I’m going to try and get there by May.