Couch to 5K

I think I might have told you that I was going to run a 5K to start my 45th year off with something healthy.  Alanna liked the idea so we signed up together for a fun Suds Run race.  Costumes are "suggested" but we opted to just run this year and they provide beer at the middle if you want and at the end, it was our birthday weekend afterall;)

I downloaded the free app to my phone and started the couch to 5K in enough time to take me into the race. 

What's that saying about best laid plans?  SUPER high temps and humidity slowed me down, shin splints, swollen ankles, sore knee, pain in my toes, blisters. Yeah, I had it all.  But, I didn't stop.  I repeated week 3 a couple of times and week 4 twice.  I never got past week 4.  For those of you that have never looked at couch to 5K, that means I never ran for more than 5 minutes at one time.  That's kind of a problem when you're planning on "running" 3.5 miles!

The night before the race Alanna talked me off of my ledge and told me that she would walk as often as I needed to.  Our goal was to finish under our age of 45.

Race day we had lovely weather.  Sun shining, nice breeze and a decent temp.  Our pre-race photos are all smiles:)

I didn't love the run from the beginning.  But I had Alanna next to me saying encouraging things.  Telling me to just keep a slow pace.  I had to walk a couple of times for a little bit because I had this nagging shin splint that surfaces about every 5th time I exercise.  We passed the mile 2 marker and my foot was completely numb!!  As in it felt like I had a brick in my tennis shoe instead of a foot!!  That's never happened before!  I slowed to a walk, shook my foot, stretched.  Nope, it was still numb.  What choice did I have, I had to finish so off we went again.  Alanna could have had a much better time but she stuck with me and we finished together at 40 minutes RUNNING!  I have to admit, I liked the accomplished feeling finishing gave me.

I was a little sore the day after but on Monday I was out walk/running again and I felt better immediately.  I haven't had a problem with my foot going numb again but will be getting some compression socks the next time I'm near a sporting goods store because from what I've researched, those should help with the ankle issues and/or numbness.

Not sure I'll run another 5K but I like the feeling of pushing myself out of my comfort zone and running definitely does that so I'm not saying never;)

At the finish, under the SUDS, toasting another year together and STILL smiling!