My First Official 5K!

Saturday morning, June 12, 2010, was the morning of my first official 5K (Woodland's 5K series ). I was super excited about it and even got some butterflies in my stomach like when I played in my first basketball game or my first skydiving competition. I had run three miles before, but this was different. We were going to be timed and I was running with lots of other people besides Jodi, Jules, or Amy.

I stayed with Jodi on Friday night since the run was by her house. The thought was that we could sleep in a little more and get to the race early. As a surprise since she said she couldn't make it, my mother, Kandace Heimer came out to take pictures (a great photographer, website). That was an awesome show of support on her side, but that's how she rolls. She has always been to my big sporting events whether it was a basketball game or my first big National Skydiving competition last October (doubt she will come to Chicago this year). I told her that she will need to come to my half marathon. And I'm glad my mother did come, because Jodi's boyfriend, Lucky was supposed to be there to take pictures and get us Gatorade. He didn't get there in time so they wouldn't let him park in the school since we were running and all within the school area.

Our plan was to get there 30 minutes early to stretch and warm-up; however, that plan didn't go quite so well. My mother was calling me to yell that they were starting and that we would miss it. But we finally got there with five minutes to spare, which gave us barely any time to stretch. There was no warm-up walk. Since Jodi and I practiced the two laps around the school as the warm-up, I assumed we would do the same. Yeah, not so much. When they started, they started...running. Holy Snikes Batman, I was not ready. My mother is yelling at me, "Go kristi, what did you think this was?"

Most of the runners there were actual runners that do this quite a lot. Us (me)...not so much. We kept a nice, easy pace throughout. We rounded the two laps (my mother was there throughout the run taking pictures like a ninja with
that camera) and headed out. Another slight difference was that we practiced going to the right after we got out of the school parking lot; the run was actually to the left. Everything felt so off. Our pace stayed pretty good though and we only stopped for a quick walk twice. One time, I had to stop, because I was cramping really bad in my side. I couldn't shake it. The second time we stopped, we went up this steep incline (yes, it was) to a bridge and I thought my legs were going to collapse. Jodi pushed me on saying, "just make it to the bottom of the bridge." And I did, but I had to stop for a quick walk. Both walking points were only 10 seconds. After the second walk stop, Jodi told me that we were going to run the rest of the way back. Wait, What? That is a long way back. She is such an evil fairy. Sometime throughout the run, I started getting hot and had to take off my shirt.

When, we got to the end of the run, Jodi pushed me to run harder for the last little sprint to the finish line. She came in 40th place and I came in 41rst place. It wasn't last place, so I'll take it. They put our place number on these little popsicle sticks, but I was really wanting my finish time. I wasn't sure what our total time was, because we never kept time before. I at least know it was under 40 minutes since the race was completed with all runners within 45 minutes. They were supposed to post the results, but I haven't found them yet online. We also did a great deal of stretching at the end to make up for the lack of stretching in the beginning. And I needed it. I didn't realize how sore I was until I got back to the dropzone and was piddling around for an hour. I should have jumped.

I'm so happy that I was able to accomplish this and it was the longest run that I have ever done. It was also the most running that I have ever done. I am getting stronger every session; however, I still hate running though.

Thanks to Jodi for being the evil fairy that she is with the whole training pushiness; it really keeps me going. Thanks to my mother, the awesomist, award winning photographer for showing up and providing all the pictures on this post (and hopefully many more to come).