Sunday, April 17, 2005

5k A-Ok

This morning, I ran my first 5K . . . 3.1 miles. I believe that's the furthest I've ever gone running toward something. I'm no Forrest Gump. The last half mile was inside the zoo--the last half mile. By that time, I didn't care all that much about the hyenas and hippos. Though, the elephants were still kinda cool. "Oh . . . pant . . . pant," I said to Katie, my running buddy, "there . . . ele . . . phants . . . "

The thing was, I didn't realize that the race continued inside the zoo. When we got close to the gates, I kicked it in. Once inside, I didn't see anybody stopping--bad sign. So I had to recover and keep up some kind of a pace just to stay with Katie. Katie's a good pace-setter. I wouldn't have done nearly as well without her. I mean, there is a lot of pride attached to doing something like that on your own, but there's a lot that gets pulled out of you when you're with someone else--especially someone else that's pretty well matched.

As Katie pulled ahead to pass runners in front of us, I would pull to the side and follow her around. It was just understood that we were staying together. As I stared past her back, it occurred to me that I need pacesetters in my life. I needed Katie to decide to pass the girls with walkmans in front of us (do they still make walkmans?), because if she hadn't, I wouldn't have. I had been telling myself that I was just trying to finish this thing. But there was a lot more in me than I thought. Because of Katie, I exceeded my own expectations today. I probably could have finished those 3.1 miles by myself. But it wouldn't have been in 31 minutes.

In a brief Boston marathon moment, we poured our dixie cups of water over our heads at the 1.5 mile mark, laughing. Just afterwards, we passed the park restrooms and saw a girl come sprinting out to rejoin the race. "She went to the bathroom, and she's still beating us," I panted to Katie.

6 comments:

rebstar said...

i am so impressed, suzanne! what a great accomplishment, and what a great story--thank you. :)

Andronicus said...

Except for in soccer/rugby games, i don't think i've ever WILLINGLY ran more than a couple of miles. Hooray for you long run! You are a brave soul.

myleswerntz said...

welcome to the running world!

Anonymous said...

just thought i would say congrats!

Esue said...

Once, my friend Abi and I were out of our minds and decided to run a half marathon. As we ran across the finish line, we realized that we were coming in at the same time as the marathon winners...the 26 milers! And you thought that having girls who pit stopped in the bathroom was bad!

Chris & Alicia said...

Just thought I would say,



"YOUR MOM!!!!"

No, really--that's pretty good, Suz. Today, I've probably walked down 14 or 15 hallways (back AND forth, most hallways repeated, naturally) and walked/jogged up/down 10/11 flights/staircases.