My 5K's

Today I successfully completed my second 5K. For those of you who don't know, that's 3.1 miles. The first 5K I did was on September 12th. It was to support Abuse Prevent. Instead of numbers, we had quotes. Each person had a different quote relating to abuse, rape, victims, pornography, opposition, acceptance, and love. Mine was "An ideal culture is where every human is valued for their gifts." - Margaret Mead. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I didn't set a very good pace, and I had to stop and walk a few times. My time? 29:34. These past few weeks, I've been training (for a triathlon, but I mean, I still run 3x's a week), and I made a goal to beat my previous time.
Today was the second 5K run. It was a fundraiser called "Warm the Soles 5K". They raise money to purchase shoes for children who come from poor families. Not only did I accomplish my goal of beating my previous time, I also set a pace so that I could run the entire time. My time was 27:54. I guess that was good enough to get me 7th overall and 3rd in my division (Women 16-22). I have to admit, I was a little disappointed with my time ONLY because I wasn't dead after the race. Which means that I could have tried harder. Good thing I have another 5K coming up in two weeks :)

For those of you who don't know me, I have to say, I have never considered myself very athletic. I didn't participate in any sports in High School, but having done these runs and training almost every day makes me wish I had. Accomplishing something like this just makes you feel so good. Not only was I able to run this 5K without stopping and beat my previous goal, I also was able to support a noteworthy cause. I would recommend that everyone run a 5K. It's not a long run. It's very doable. AND it's super easy to train for. Just run 3 times a week, steadily increasing how far and how long you run, and you can do it in a matter of weeks. On top of that, running just feels so good. Especially when you're done. You can say, "Wow, I just ran that!" It's a great feeling.
Right now, I'm training to do a super sprint triathlon next week (200 yd swim, 6.2 mile bike, 1.8 mile run), another 5K on October 24th, and a sprint triathlon in the spring (400 yd swim, 10 mile bike, 5K run (3.1 miles)). I'm working on making myself better overall :)