Box of Chocolates: Thing 20

30 things, in 30 days, before my 30th birthday...

Thing 20: Run in a race - SUCCESS!!!

Sooo... this actually will kill two birds with one stone. I know I know it's a little like I'm double counting, but you try to think of 60 goals or things to do in one year... its a LITTLE tiring! If you all remember my blog about my new year's goals, you will remember that number 11 was do a charity run or walk.

So my friend Anna is able to participate for free by lottery in some running events, and she sometimes tells me which events she might sign up for, so one of them was happening this past Saturday in the west end. It was to support the organization SCAN which stands for Stop Child Abuse Now. The mission of this organization (as stated on their website) is "to prevent and treat child abuse and neglect throughout the Greater Richmond area by protecting children, promoting positive parenting, strengthening families and creating a community that values and cares for its children."

Obviously this is a great organization to support, so I signed up for the 5K. I, like the procrastinator I am, did NOT train for this event. In fact, I have NOT run (really) since like 2008. So, the week before the race I am thinking... oh lord, this race is going to be awful! I have not done anything except sometimes walked outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

Well, 8AM on race day comes. We drive out to the west end, pick up our race shwag and get in line to start our run. It was a little chilly that morning, so we're all dressed in long sleeves and pants. We get ready to start and I tell Anna I want her to stay with me at least while I'm running, but when I have to stop that she can go ahead and come back for me after she finishes. So we start our run... I'm alright for a while... We run down the street, around the houses, down another street getting to the lake I'm starting to lose my breath, and about 2/3 of the way around the lake I'm like... ok I can't do this anymore. So I told her to go on... (I think we were like 1 mile in or so). So... she kept going and I gave myself a point where I would start running again. Soooo... I did... I ran (jogged really) all the way to the halfway point (which happened to also be the start because you had to run two times around.) then I walked through the water stop. Then I ran the whole second half of the course all the way around. I finished in 34:40, which is pretty darn good considering I didn't train and I haven't run since 2008. When I saw Anna again she told me we ran the first mile in 9 minutes... ummm I don't think I've EVER run a 9 minute mile, not even when I was in the best of shape, so that kind of makes sense why I was tired.

Needless to say, it was a great run for a good charity and I'm glad I did it, even if I am a little sore and was terribly dehydrated for most of yesterday! Thanks Anna for being my cheerleader!