An adventurous first 5K

Earlier this week it hit 67 degrees here in Minnesota. I spent those days in an office building, hoping against all odds that the weather would hold until Saturday, when I would be running my first 5k.

It was clearly too much to hope for.

By Wednesday meterologists were making dire predictions for a winter storm that was supposed to drop several inches of snow on Saturday. Sadly, the meterologists were correct.

As those of you who are friends with me on Facebook know, I have learned through my training for this 5k that I loathe running. Truly, truly dislike it. There is nothing I dreaded more than having to spend a beautiful Sunday afternoon running when I would rather be skating. There was nothing enjoyable in training for this event for me, especially when I was using my "me" time (i.e. time not at work and not with kids) to do this dreaded chore.

I had begun the couch potato to 5k program a little more than 2 months ago, and promptly stopped following it a month later. Not that I'm a couch potato, I'm pretty active and in good shape due to my inline skating, but running is a completely different set of muscles and a totally different cardio workout than inline skating. I should've been training, but really? Ugh.

So Saturday, when I awoke to several inches of the white stuff on the ground with thick, heavy snow still falling, being whipped around by the wind, I had the perfect excuse. I could've bagged on this event and no one would blame me.

But I have a friend for whom this 5k means more to her than it does to me, and I had arranged to pick her up and at least start this run together. Laura had really trained for this and she wasn't going to miss it; she worked too hard for it. (You can read about her reasons for running and her training for it on her blog.)

So I got up and out, met her at her house and tried to avoid being one of many poor drivers in the ditch along the road on our way to Centerville for this race.

The race itself was actually...fun. I know, right? My shoes were soaked in the first 10 steps, my mittens soaked through by the halfway mark. But it was a badge of honor to say that I ran in those kinds of conditions, and once I got going I heated up enough that I didn't really mind the cold.

My goal was to run the whole way, and I did with the exception of the one water stop, since I haven't figured out how to drink water and run at the same time. I finished in a little over 39 minutes, which was a 12:37 pace. My goal was to run the whole way, which I did, and I consider that an accomplishment considering it was like running in sand with the snow and slush.

Hmmm...okay, so training for a 5k sucks, but the actual 5k itself is fun. Maybe I can just run 5ks without training for them, as long as I keep in shape via other activities, right? We'll see! Maybe Wayne will make a runner out of me after all.