Tangent Tuesday: Running

My sister and I ran our first 5k when I was in eighth grade, I think. We "trained" by running a few times a week and our goal was just under 30 minutes. We ran almost the whole way and walked just once or twice. I remember being so excited that we had run it in between 28 and 29 minutes. Other than that, running before I went to college was limited to me running track for one season in high school—less than one season, actually, since I broke my toe midway through the season.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college when I ran the Turkey Trot on campus—again somewhere in the 28 minute range. Throughout these years I would run sporadically. Then I met Nathan and we started dating... and I continued to run sporadically. When I ran the Detroit Turkey Trot in 2011, I had run just a handful of times leading up to the race. And shocker, my time was in the 27 minute range.

As horrible as this picture is, it kinda sums up the race—cold, foggy, and slow.

Personal photo showing the extent of my photography skills—now do you see why I wanted engagement pictures?

This is where the story gets (a little) better. I started running "for real," even following a training plan and committing to running several times a week. I had a goal of under 25 minutes and a race in mind—the Reedy River 5k. Race day came and it was cloudy and cool—and I was rested and ready to race.

Personal photo.

Shockingly, I somehow finished in 22:50—good enough for first in my age group! I immediately signed up for my next race. Now that I felt like I was speedy and awesome, I set overly ambitious goals for a hilly course in 90 degree weather. Spoiler: I didn't achieve them. Oops.

After that race (not telling you the name or date out of embarrassment...), I wasn't sure I wanted to run another 5k. I ran easily all summer. No speedwork. No pressure. Fall came and I knew I wanted to run the campus 5k again. Because I'm an idiot, I set the exact same goals for myself, even though I kept telling myself it would be "ok" just to go out there and do my best.

"C" Goal (minimum I wanted to achieve): get a personal best time under 22:50
"B" Goal: run under 22:00
"A" Goal (what I really wanted...): run under 22:00 and place overall

The rest of the story will have to wait for next time, but the good news is that I didn't cry at the end of this 5k like I did the last one...