Monday, January 23, 2012

Accomplishment


I had an extremely busy weekend.  I had dinner with my mom and her friends on Friday night.  Got up at 6am to run my FIRST 5k!!  (Details to follow)  Then I went straight to my boyfriend’s house for a family gathering, then to Borderline for my friend’s birthday party (finally getting into bed at 3:30 am :[...), then I woke up to a sick boyfriend on Sunday morning, but we still went to a bbq for the 49er game.  Needless to say, I'm pooped.  

I am so proud of myself for running in my first 5k.  I was extremely nervous due to the fact that my knees started killing me 2 weeks ago, which put a halt in my training. I had been doing weight training to try to strengthen the muscles surrounding my knee to get away from the pain, but guess where that got me?  Sore... so extremely sore that I am STILL hobbling around.  But I did it.  My brother, Danny, who has been running for years, also did the race with me, but he did the 10k.  I was so nervous about it.  I was scared that I would be the only one that had to walk part of it and people would feel sorry for me as I went through the finish line hours after the person before me.  I was psyched that when I got there, I saw two other friends that were doing it too!  I checked in and picked up my bib. When the race was about to start I was hyperventilating.  All sorts of thoughts were running through my mind. "Would I get stampeded? Does everyone start out by running?  Would I do it wrong?"  When I look at this now I realize how silly this sounds, but at the time I was full of emotions.  Luckily one friend wasn't worried.  She told me that she always starts out by walking, she went with me to the back of the pack and I felt much more comfortable.  When we got out onto the main street, I decided to jog.  My knees started hurting immediately but adrenaline soon took over.  I had my music on through my Nike+ app and it made me feel good.  I kept challenging myself though landmarks.  When I felt I was getting tired, I would look up ahead and tell myself I could stop running at the stop sign, or the yellow house.  Usually by the time I reached the points I was exhausted and I started walking.  But a couple of times, I realized that I was capable of doing it without walking.  That I wasn't going to die or faint.  I also did this with people.  I have a very competitive nature, so I would push myself to pass more people up because I wasn't going to let them get a better time than me.  I finished the 5k in 38 minutes and 56 seconds.  When I was training the lowest I could get it down to was around 44 minutes.  Needless to say I was so proud that I did it and did it in much less time than I ever had before.  I also discovered that my knees weren't hurting me.  My mind was transforming the slight pain that had stopped me the last two weeks into something much worse.  While it is extremely important to listen to your body and stop when you’re hurting, I wonder if it is just another excuse to quit.  This led me to think about something else... When we have bad addictions (i.e. smoking or drinking) that hurt us constantly we can't give them up because we are so drawn to these things... but why is it with good addictions (i.e. exercising or eating healthy) the slightest hiccup (one bad meal) can completely de-rail us from our goals and dreams?  I need to change my thinking and stop making excuses for quitting.  I need to get out of my mind and accept that I deserve to be healthy and happy with my body.  Anyways, I am proud that my knee problem didn't make me stop running.  I am happy I pushed through my mental limits and did something outside my comfort zone!    Here are some pictures from after the race!



My time was 38:56 and I finished 6th in my age group of 20-29!



Oh!!! and I am starting the contest for bodybuilding.com today!  I will post my nutrition and workout plan in an upcoming post! 

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