Thursday, May 24, 2012

Nostalgic About Races

I have been running on empty the past few days. I didn't get enough sleep on the bachelorette party weekend, I worked crazy hours on Monday, and I had a day trip to Memphis on Tuesday. By yesterday, I was dying and having trouble keeping my head up at my desk come 3pm. I had speedwork on the schedule for later in the evening and I talked to my coach and we made some adjustments. The workout was mile repeats which I hadn't done before. I love a challenge and I'm surprised what I can do in workouts when I aim for a loftier pace goal than I would have even tried without the help of my coach. And then when I try it, it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'm getting excited for some of the upcoming goal races to REALLY see what I can do when I have the confidence and training to push my body farther than it has ever gone before. Get ready PR! I'm coming for you!

I officially signed up for the Jim Gibbons 5k today. It is the first 5k I ever did, back in 2006. Here is a small excerpt from my embarrassing old college LiveJournal (to anyone interested in reading that pile of garbage, it is "friends only," sorry... not really).
June 15, 2006
i am running a 5k today for lukemia research. its the first 5k i've done in years, if ever. i am running it with amanda so it should be fun. if this works out, i might do these more often. 
Who knew I'd become so addicted only a few short years later? I think of what my life was then and what it is now and so much has changed! As kind of a trip down memory lane, I've made this race one of my goal races for the year. I'm excited to push the pace and aim for that 5k PR that I know I can achieve! It is on Thursday, June 14 at 6:30 in the city and quite a few of my fellow blogger friends are doing it too. I know there is an Active Advantage discount if you're a member, so you should sign up too! We are going to probably do a meetup too before and after the race. If you're looking for a reason to signup, last time I did it, there was free beer post-race. Just saying....!!!

Do you often think about your first race (outside of high school athletics)? What distance was it and how long ago? I don't have any photos from back then, otherwise I would post it! Instead, I'll leave you with a photo from my first Shamrock Shuffle 8k, 9 months after my first ever 5k. I think this race was kind of a door-opener to other races for me. I had friends that were running it, I had graduated college, I was ready to start my life as an adult.

I'm the one in the middle, bib #19463, giving the camera the stink eye

Now... Let's talk about some things about this photo that make me giggle. I don't even know what shorts those are. Those gym shoes are totally from high school and 4+ years old (and the sports bra is probably from high school too--yikes). I love that I'm wearing my bib over my boobs. Why wear a sweet UIC shirt if no one can see the logo? Also, I think that MP3 play I'm using can only hold about 15 songs on it. (Thankfully it was a short race.) Despite all these things, I still ran a 47:34 (9:34) with no pain. Ah to be young again. Haha. Do you have photos from an early race? How have you changed since then?

6 comments:

  1. I haven't been running long enough to have "old" photos to look at, but I was just talking to a coworker about why blogging is great. If I ever want to know how a race went or my previous PRs, I can easily look them up. Or if someone says "can you bring that dessert you made with nutella and pretzels? It was really good," I can look that up, too.

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  2. Oh, yeah, I totally have photos from my first race. I think I recently blogged them, even.

    I just think about how I never thought I'd run a marathon and now I've run three and have more on my bucket list. That working out has become such a huge part of who I am. That I know more about running than I think I ever learned in college about much of anything :-)

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  3. My first two 5K races were in Park Forest. They used to do a 10 mile race on Labor Day, with a 5K at the same time. My parents would run/walk the 5K, and I told myself if they can do 3.1 miles, I can too. I think my longest "training run" was 2 miles, if even. According to Athlinks, I finished in 30:20 in 2005 (and I was 3rd among F20-24) and 29:53 in 2006. Then I didn't run another race until 2010.

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  4. I totally agree! I'm looking forward to continuing the running history of all these races!

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  5. I love Athlinks for this exact reason! That is so cool. I guess you could say "what a long strange trip it's been..." Haha

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  6. I totally agree. I think this is something I might do a post about in the next week... how I started, where I've come, and where I plan to go...

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