Couch to 5K

In December I was blessed to have turned the big 3-0! In November I was blessed to have completed a 5k! Not my first 5k but technically my first in more than 10 years.

I started training in June when I saw a friend of mine was completing the Couch to 5K on Facebook. I told myself I could do that and my goal was to run a 5k before I turned 30.

The program worked great for me because it was the start of the summer, school was out, the days were longer and summer ball only took up the whole month of June.

I trained and I got tan, lol. I loved every minute of it. I changed my eating habits but the frustrating part was that I lost no weight. I felt better but had no weight loss. It wasn't until I was finishing my last few weeks of training when I was blessed by a kidney stone. Then life threw me some more curves but I eventually finished the training and I could run 35 minutes or more without stopping! My legs felt like they could run forever! That is one awesome feeling to have.

But alas, school started back, middle school basketball started, I got sick, Coach had knee surgery, blah, blah, blah. A lot of excuses for me to stop training.

An opportunity came up for me to participate in a local 5k in November. Coach told me he would run with me if I did it. Of course he wasn't going to let a girl out do him.

I was skeptical for him because he had his knee scoped and cleaned out in September but he promised he wouldn't do too much. Yeah right. The big day arrived. I hadn't trained in almost 2 months but we rolled up at the park ready to run, lol.

We got signed in and lined up to start. I started my little trot and left Coach behind, he decided he was going to walk. I jogged my little pace for the first two miles without stopping. It was probably at mile 2.5 that I stopped jogging for whatever reason. I happened to turn around and out of the corner of my eye I saw Coach running behind me! That joker had already caught up with me! Well I immediately started running again because there was no way this guy was going to pass me.

Coach eventually caught up with me and my turtle jog and he stayed right there with me. He didn't even pass me. We actually chatted while we jogged side by side. It came down to the last few feet of the race and Coach actually slowed down behind me. Everyone was cheering him to pass me but he shook his head no. He let me finish with the better time.

After we finished I asked him why he let me finish before him and with a big smile he said "that was your 5k you trained for, you deserved to beat me. But don't expect it next time." That's my Coach a big sweetheart but still competitive!

We finished in 36 minutes and some change and Coach even won third place in his male age division. Our boys were so proud their daddy had won a medal. I was proud he had let me beat him : )