Runs for Cookies Virtual 5k

Woo-hoo!! I finished Katie's Virtual 5k this afternoon.

I mean. I really could have come up with every excuse not to do this. I woke up in the middle of the night and almost quite literally took two hours to fall back asleep. My back was hurting. Uh. We were under a freezing rain warning. I had asked a dear friend to come run with me, who yesterday texted me telling me she had hurt her back and didn't think she could run it with me.

But I signed up for it. So come rain or snow I was going to do it. I had figured out as much as I wanted to, I wasn't going to be able to do it on a treadmill. That has been like instant pain as soon as I start running. I don't know if it's because it's an old treadmill, and the incline is weird, or I'm just tense running on the treadmill. I knew I was going to have better luck outside.

So what did I do? I wore my workout clothes to work. Luckily we don't have kids today, and I only had to work for 3 hours, so I could get away with it. As you can see I am kind of a fashion crisis when I run. No really. I am. A green undershirt, a red shirt over that. I currently use my passport belt to hold my phone and key to my car in place of a running belt. So that's white. Then I have my blue sweatshirt, (Which I shouldn't have worn. I was dying and couldn't take it off in the park), and then a blue and white striped ear warmer thing. Oh and I wore some blue gloves for a bit. Put that along with black pants and there you have me. An elf running around like a mad woman. I just apparently want it to be Christmas year round.

So after getting off work, I made my way to the park. I then texted my mom to tell her where I was, since I was running alone. I'm not usually super cautious, and it was the middle of the day. But still. Safety first people. I took a before picture, and started walking. I still like to walk for 5 minutes in the beginning. It's just what I do.So after walking that I set off on my slow paced run. I got to .10 of a mile and said, oh hey 3 more miles to go! Haha. I ended up with the first mile at 18:39, the second at 19:10 and the third at 19:11. I might start out with a warm up, but I do the cool down after I turn the garmin off ;) I had told myself that I was going to run until I hit 1.55 miles and then I would turn around. Well about 1.4 miles I came upon a flock of geese. I. HATE. Geese. Therefore I turned around then and just ran past where I started a bit and turned around. I even texted my friend who was going to run with me a picture of the geese. I'm just not a fan. One of the other reasons I don't mind running at the track.

I got a little discouraged just because I think I had made a goal of like 47 minutes or something crazy stupid like that. But it was clear that wasn't going to happen. Due to me being a wimp and the stagnant air that's been hanging around in my area I actually haven't ran in weeks. The last thing I did was on Monday and that was a 2 mile walk with a friend. So I wasn't in the best shape to go out running today. But it didn't rain or snow, and it wasn't a bad 34 degrees once I got going. I just needed to do it.

If you don't already read Katie's blog, you should really check it out some time. I have been reading it for a long time now, and even got the idea of the Wednesday Weigh in from her. She has been an amazing inspiration and I can't wait to read her blog every night to see what her success and struggles have been.

So today we celebrated Katie turning 31 with a 5k and I celebrated leaving 31 with a 5k. Can't believe it's time for my birthday again. But I don't think I will be getting up on Monday with any intention of running 3.2 miles ;)