So I ran my first 5k yesterday in Belknap County, New Hampshire which is pretty fitting.
I love New Hampshire, and most people that know me, know that. The LIVE FREE OR DIE state is like a second home to me since we vacationed up there every year during the summer. As a matter of fact in order to get rid of my nasty post-race smell I went in to Lake Winnipesaukee (Which means Smile of the Great Spirit to the Native Americans who named the Lake) for the 24th straight year.
So when looking for a place to run a 5k it only made sense to do it near Lake Winnipesaukee. I knew I could run and exercise in the morning and then have fun all afternoon and then go to my favorite places to eat.
Plus I first decided to eat better, and be more conscious of taking control of my health in New Hampshire. One vacation I just decided to eat half as much as I usually ate and before I knew it I got to a healthy weight. I was very overweight until 8th grade. Knowing what it's like to be out of shape makes me want to avoid ever going back to being unhealthy.
I had several motivators for the 5k. A big one was my coach. Another big one was doing it for the cross country and track runners that I work with. I push them to be better (hopefully) so in return I wanted to push myself to be better in an area they excel at. Another was just wanting to see how well and far I could push myself. One is that a marathon is on my bucket list. Baby steps first!
The 5k I did benefited the Sheriffs Department of Belknap County. I have a cousin who is a police officer on Martha's Vineyard and my great great great grandpa was a police officer in New York City. It's good to help those who help ordinary citizens for a living.
The night before my 5k I got instructions from my coach on what to eat for breakfast and how to prepare. I was smart enough to ask about nutrition because I knew my favorite of Maple Syrup with Waffles wouldn't really help me do well. I was instructed that oatmeal and banana's would work. I added some apple sauce and cinnamon pita chips and grapes as well. As for stretching I used my foam roller before I left. As for warming up I ran starting about 15-20 minutes before the run.
Thankfully I knew where I was going, since I had driven past the complex for Belknap Country for years. It made the drive a lot less stressful since I knew I didn't need to worry about traffic. I arrived about an hour early, registered, hydrated and stayed in my car or in the shade to stay cool.
After a little while more people showed up and since it was my first 5k I didn't know what to expect, mainly, where the heck would I be running? I didn't expect to be in the back and just following people. I hoped to be near the front. I expected to get around 19:30 and to finish between 3rd and 7th. So finally I asked some guy and got an idea of where I was going.
Just before the start of the race I took a piss, knowing I didn't want to have to pee in the race.
I had no idea where to start, but I sensed that I shouldn't be too shy, and shouldn't be too far from the first runners. In retrospect, I should have been in the first row of people. I was probably in the second or third. As the gun went off I was just antsy. I weaved in and out of a few runners before settling in with the top few runners.
Before long the first two guys checked out on us. After going up a hill, which I tried to charge up, even if only in the first few moments of the race, I ended up getting to third. I was hoping to keep that up, but I started to realize that I was going a little too fast. I kept wondering if it was halfway yet. Then I realized that I hadn't seen the half way point water break. I decided to back off a little bit. The guy in fourth place and the girl in fifth place both passed me and I ended up in fifth. As we kept going I finally got to the water break. I thought about how I would handle getting handed water. Do I stick my hand out? What if the water falls out of my hand and I lose time? Then I realized the runners in front of me didn't get water to drink, just thrown at them to deal with the 80 degree heat. I took a splash and kept going. The man in third place kept getting a little farther away, and I settled in with the women in fourth.
For the last mile I would say, I was neck and neck with the women running before I finally got to the point where I was ready to give everything I had. At this point I put a small amount of distance in between her and I. I also had my eye on a man behind me.
I kept running hard through the end and was happy to finally hit the homestretch, where I just gave it my all. I ended up getting a 19:28 and held on to fourth place by three seconds over the women racing near me. I also beat all of the Law Enforcement in the race, so it's proof I can outrun the cops.
The first thing I did after the race was try to find a place to lie down. I got a Gatorade from my sister's boyfriend and just enjoyed that and a bottle of water. The man who finished in third place was nice enough to congratulate me. I told him it was my first 5k, and he informed me that I ran a long 5k, a 5k that was 3.2 miles. So I really run this much faster than my training run on Tuesday that I did in 19:36. Now he was amazed I ran a full 5k on Tuesday, saying that wasn't a lot of recovery time. I casually mentioned something about that to my coach over a text and she didn't kill me, but realized I took her meaning of a hard workout literally. Let's just practice for the 5k by doing one! I guess I got that wrong.
All in all I had a great time. I was happy to benefit New Hampshire Sheriffs, to run past the shores of Lake Winnisquam, and then head over to Lake Winnipesaukee for some fun.
My post race meal, which actually occurred a few hours after the race, because I wasn't hungry right after, was a hot dog, with onion rings and french fries. A healthy breakfast called for an unhealthy lunch I guess!
I now just have to find another race to do...and maybe it's getting closer to the time I start thinking about triathlons.
And I used Richard as my name...from Ashburnham, MA
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/nh/Jul6_Belkna_set1.shtml
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